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MSHpBWBpWwWSiStei 



THE 



THEOGONY 



HINDOOS; 



WITH THEIR SYSTEMS OF 



PHILOSOPHY AND COSMOGONY. 



&n IS00ag/ 



BY 



COUNT M. BJORNSTJERNA, 

AUTHOR OF 'THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE EAST.' 



LONDON: 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

1844. ^ 






LONDON : 

Printed by William Clowes and Sons, 

Stamford Street. 



ADVERTISEMENT, 



The Essay which we here put into the hands of 
the public was originally written in the Swedish 
language, being the Author s native tongue. It 
is now about two years since it was first pub- 
lished at Stockholm. 

We here present it in an English translation, 
revised by the author himself, with various cor- 
rections and improvements. We are happy to 
say that the translation has met with the appro- 
bation of the author ; whilst the additions to the 
original give it rather the character of a new and 
revised work, than that of a mere English version 
of the original edition. 

Should the present essay meet with as favour- 
able a reception as that of its predecessor,* we 
shall feel ourselves amply rewarded in the con- 
sciousness that our labour has not been in vain. 

* < The British Empire in the East.' 



... 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page 

Introduction 1 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE RELIGION OF 
THE HINDOOS. 

Origin 9 

Development 10 

Present state 11 

THE DIVISION OF CASTES AMONG 
THE HINDOOS. 

General view . 13 

Brahmins 13 

Khetrys 16 

Vaisyas 17 

Sudras 18 

Pahrias 19 

Comparison of the castes of India with the European 

Classes , 19 

THE HIGH ANTIQUITY OF THE BRAHMIN RELIGION, AND 

OF THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE 

AND OF THE SCIENCES IN INDIA. 

Age of the Vedas 23 

Age of the Vedanta 25 

The immortality of the soul, according to the Vedas . . 26 

View of the philosophers of Greece and Rome ... 27 



ii CONTENTS. 

Page 

Age of the laws of Menu ......... 30 

The Indian Yugs, or periods of the world's development 31 

Astronomy of the Hindoos 32 

Geometry ditto ditto 36 

Culture ditto ditto 37 

Are these of native growth or derived from others ? . .38 
Comparison between the culture of the Hindoos and the 

Egyptians 39 

Comparison between the culture of the Hindoos and the 

Chinese 45 

THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

Vedas 51 

Vedanta 57 

Laws of Menu 53 

Puranas 54 

Trimurti of the Brahmins 55 

Vedantism 57 

Vishnuism 58 

Sivaism 59 

Eeligion and philosophy 61 

Spinoza 63 

Conclusions 63 

The doctrine of the transmigration of souls (Metemp- 
sychosis) 65 

Moral phenomena thence arising 66 

General reflections on Brahmaism 67 

PHILOSOPHIC SYSTEMS OF THE HINDOOS. 

Division of their philosophic systems 72 

System of Minansa .73 

System of Maja 75 

Relation of the Hindoo systems to pantheism .... 78 



CONTENTS. in 

THE EPIC POETRY OF THE HINDOOS, AS A PART 
OF THELR RELIGION. 

Page 

Mamajana 80 

Mdhab-hdrata 81 

Ancient opinions of the Hindoos respecting the female sex . 82 

Imagery of the Hindoo poetry 83 

Dramatic literature of the Hindoos 85 

BUDDHISM. 

Different authors of Buddhism ....*... 87 

Substance of Buddhism 88 

Metaphysics of the same 89 

Sakia Buddha ,90 

Godama Buddha 92 

Fo (Fud'h, Budd'h) . . . 93 

Fo-Hian's description of Buddhism in his time .... 93 
Division of the metaphysics of Buddhism into deistical and 

pantheistical 94 

Buddhists in Thibet 97 

Buddhism in Egypt 99 

— in Chaldea, Phoenicia, and Palestine . . .101 

Connexion of the Samaritans and Essenes with the Budd- 
hists 101 

Gnostics with the Buddhists . . . .102 

— Greek and Roman mythology with Budd- 
hism 103 

Buddhism in Corea and Japan 103 

The Druids in relation to Buddhism 104 

Odin's doctrine a distant echo of Buddhism . . . .105 

THE JAINAS. 

The Jainas Buddhist sectaries 113 

Chief sources for the knowledge of Buddhism . . . .115 



iv CONTENTS. 

THE SHEIKS. 

Page 

Substance of their religion 118 

Baba Nanuk and Govindu Singh, its founders . . .118 

THE MAHOMETAN TRIBES IN INDIA, THE GUEBERS 

OR PARSES, AND THE SYRIAN CHRISTIANS 

IN INDIA. 

The Mahometans in India 122 

The Guebers or Parses 124 

The Syrian Christians .124 

A short description of the different tribes of India . . .126 

THE COSMOGONY OF THE HINDOOS COMPARED WITH 

THE COSMOGONIES OF THE OTHER 

MOST ANCIENT NATIONS. 

The cosmogony of the Hindoos 128 

Buddhists 132 

Accordance with the Mosaic cosmogony 133 

Chronology of the Bactrian records 134 

Iranian ditto 135 

Sogdianian ditto 135 

Chinese ditto 135 

Documents of the Hindoos concerning the great deluge (Sa- 

kiavratd) 137 

Documents of the Zend-people concerning the great deluge 

(Cayonmortz) 139 

Documents of the Chinese concerning the great deluge 

(Jao) 139 

Documents of the Chaldees concerning the great deluge (Xi- 

susthros) 139 

Documents of the Armenians 140 

Greeks (Deukalion, Ogyges) . . . 141 

Scandinavians (Berggembler) . . . 141 



CONTENTS. v 

Page 

Mosaic account of Noah 142 

Accordance of these accounts with science . . . . 144 
Was man created when the deluge took place? . . .148 
Has the human race descended entirely from Noah? . .150 
Point of departure of the human race . . . . .155 

According to the Mosaic record 155 

According to the Zend-Avesta 156 

According to the Schuking of the Chinese . . . .162 

According to the Schustras of the Hindoos . . . .163 

Original language of the progenitors of the human race 166 
Degree of culture of the same . . . . . . .166 

Comparison of the names of the days among the Hindoos 

and the Scandinavians 170 



OF THE FIRST MIGRATION OF NATIONS ON 
THE EARTH. 

Was the high land of Central Asia the first habitation of 

man? 172 

Geological grounds for this inquiry 173 

Conclusions thence . . . .178 

Reference to the Polar regions 179 

The first migrations were from thence to the high land of 

Central Asia 180 

Thence southward to India, westward to Persia, and east- 
ward to China 181 

When did these migrations take place ? 182 

Concluding reflections 182 

Tabular extract from Champollion 183 



INTRODUCTION. 



Herodotus, the father of classic history, relates, 
that after Cyrus had conquered the greater part 
of Asia, and his successor, Darius Hystaspes, had 
continued these conquests, the northern point of 
Hindostan (the present Punjab) formed one of 
the twenty-four provinces which constituted the 
kingdom of Darius. Ahout one hundred and 
sixty years after this king's death, Alexander 
commenced his expedition against India, prohably 
because it had discontinued paying the tribute im- 
posed by the former. From Sogdiana (the pre- 
sent Sumarcand), and from Bactria (Balkh), the 
Grecian conqueror conducted his army over the 
Paropa7nian chain of mountains, now called 
Hindu-Kosh* to India, which was then the 
object of his ambition (vide Strabo and Arrian). 

* Alexander built a city on the southern side of this chain of 
mountains, which bore his name (Arrian, iv.) and is probably the 
present Cabul. 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

At the river Hyphasis* Alexander fell in with 
A gr antes, king of the Gangarides,f who, with 
20,000 cavalry, 100,000 infantry, and 2000 war 
chariots,J stopped the way of the hitherto un- 
restrained conqueror. An insurrection broke out 
in Alexander's army, which compelled him to 
return to the Hydaspes. Here he built vessels, 
embarked a part of his army, followed the stream 
downwards as far as its conjunction with the 
Indus, and proceeded on this river down to 
Patula, the present Tatah, from which place he 
returned by the Persian Gulf, to the conquered 
provinces on the Tigris and the Euphrates. 

The resistance made by the Indian kings, the 
great number of their forces, the multitude of 
their war chariots, the excellence of their arms, 
and the strength of their fortresses, prove what 
India was even at that time.§ 

* This river is now called Beeja, which, after its conjunction 
with Hesudrus (now Sutledge), falls into the Hydaspes (now 
Jellum), and together with the latter into the Indus. 

"j" The countries about the Ganges, probably the most northern 
parts of the same, Rohilcund, Oude, and Bareilly. 

% Vide Arrian and Quintus Curtius, Lib. ix. Cap. 11. 

§ More than 1200 years earlier, another conqueror (Kris- 
chna) had victoriously marched through India, surrounded by 
dancing Bacchantes crowned with vine-branches. It is this 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

The earliest writers, after Herodotus, who have 
given any information to Europe respecting India, 
are Arrian and Diodorus. Their accounts origi- 
nate for the greater part from Megasthenes, who 
was sent by Alexander as ambassador to the king 
of the Prasians, whose capital was Palibotkra, 
now Patna* in the province of Bahar. Megas- 
thenes relates that there were then 118 inde- 
pendent kingdoms in India, and that Palibotkra 
was two geographical milesf in length, and one 
mile in breadth, and was surrounded by a wall 
with 570 towers, and 64 gates. J He also men- 
tions the high degree of culture which India had 
already attained ; that the land was full of large 
and rich cities, had a considerable trade, and 
roads in all directions, with mile-stones, and was 
provided with(inns for travellers. 

Strabo, Plutarch, and Apollodorus agree in 
these statements. Strabo makes mention of the 
wealth which prevailed in India, how the 

historic fact, which is celebrated in the famous Sanscrit poem 
Mahab-harata, that has given rise to the mythological narrative 
of the Greeks respecting the procession of Bacchus to India. 

* Vide Kennel's Geographical System of Herodotus. 

■f 15 to a degree. 

{ Strabo, Lib. xv. 

B 2 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

elephants were covered with gold and silver 
ornaments, the drinking vessels set with precious 
stones, and the people of rank clothed in gold 
brocade adorned with pearls. Aristobulus men- 
tions the chastity of the Hindoo wife, and her 
voluntary death by burning, on the decease of her 
husband, as is the case at the present day. 

A long period elapsed after the Greeks before 
any further information was obtained respecting 
this country. St. Clemens and St. Ambrose were 
the only authors of the middle ages who have 
given any accounts of it, and of so uncertain a 
character, that little reliance can be placed upon 
them. 

After these fathers of the church, Ibn-Batuta, 
a native of Morocco, from Tangiers, has given the 
most correct information. He undertook a journey 
to the east in the year 1324, which continued till 
1353, twenty -nine years. Batuta visited Algiers, 
Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Kho- 
rassan, Afghanistan, India twice, Tibet, China, 
Sumatra and Java, and returned by Ormus, 
Shiraz, Ispahan, Aleppo, Mecca, Jerusalem and 
Gibraltar, to Morocco, an astonishing journey for 
this period. 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

During his stay in India, Batuta gained the 
favour of Muhammed, the emperor of Delhi, who 
despatched him with an embassy to the emperor 
of China. This Muhammed was a descendant of 
the sultans of Khorassan, who had conquered 
a part of India, all of whom took the surname of 
Oddin, or Ud-din. 

Batuta s retinue consisted of no less than 1000 
persons. He set out from Delhi in the year 1342, 
and took with him presents, which show what 
splendor and opulence prevailed at the court of 
Delhi. These consisted of 100 Arabian horses, 
richly bridled and saddled; 100 Bayaderes, 
distinguished for their beauty; five dresses 
worked with jewels ; 500 dresses of gold and 
silk; 1000 dresses of various kinds of materials, 
together with a great number of vessels of gold, 
swords with jewels, &c* 

The description of the manifold disasters 
of the embassy is interesting ; in other respects 
Batuta s account is nothing but a statement of 
the names of the places which he visited. It 
is written in Arabic, and has been translated 

* The embassy was plundered on the way, and also suffered 
shipwreck. Batuta however finally reached China by Tibet. 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

into German by Kosegarten, into English by Pro- 
fessor Lee, and into French in the Nouveau Jour- 
nal Asiatique. 

These are the only sources respecting India 
which have been delivered to us by the middle 
ages.* 

A new era commenced when Vasco di Gama 
had discovered the passage by the Cape of Good 
Hope, and founded Goa in the sixteenth century. 
The Portuguese now penetrated into the southern 
parts of India, which hitherto had been but little 
known, and our stores of knowledge were increased. 

It is however to the Missionaries, and especially 
to the Jesuits, sent by the Congregatio de propa- 
ganda Fide, that we are really indebted for the best 
accounts of India in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. The most distinguished of those were, 
Pere du Halde, Bouchet, Duisse, Tachard, Man- 
duit, Martin, d'Entrecolles, and Stephen le Gac. 
Their narratives are for the most part collected 
in the very remarkable work entitled, " Lettres 
edifiantes par les Missionaires de la Compagnie 
de Jesus." 

* The remarkable journey of Marco Polo, at the close of the 
thirteenth century, was in fact to China and Tibet, but not to India. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

After the Jesuits of the Propaganda, two 
Frenchmen, Bernier and Tavernier, have given 
the most correct accounts of India. The former 
travelled there from 1640 to 1645, under the reign 
of Shah Jehan and that of the celebrated Aurung 
Zeb. His statements are in all respects to be de- 
pended upon, and especially in everything relating 
to Cashmeer, where he remained a considerable 
time. 

Tavernier travelled somewhat later, but as he 
was unacquainted with the oriental languages, his 
statements are the less to be relied upon. 

Anquetil du Perron visited India in the 
eighteenth century. His chief merit consists in his 
having brought from India the sacred books of the 
Zend-tribes, and translating them into the French 
language. 

GentiVs " Voyage dans les Mers des Indes " 
(1660), and Baillys " Traite sur l'Astronomie 
Indienne " (1785), possess great scientific merit. 

It was, however, reserved for the English to 
communicate the best accounts ; and who could be 
better qualified for this purpose than the people 
who governed India ? Sir William Jones, the first 
President of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (in 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

the year 1787), prepared the way for this know- 
ledge in a literary point of view. With multi- 
farious European and Oriental learning, Sir Wil- 
liam combined the advantage of a thirty years' 
residence in India, on which account his works 
are of great value. To cite all the writers after 
him, who have distinguished themselves in this 
department, would require an entire catalogue ; I 
therefore confine myself to enumerate merely the 
names of those authors whose works have been 
chiefly made use of in the course of this essay. 
They are the following : — Sir W. Jones* Cole- 
brooke,-f Crawford^ Houghton,^ Todd,\\ Sir John 
Malcolm,^ Mountstuart Elphinstone** Coleman, j"\ 
Poller, XX Kennedy, % and Wilson \\ The other 
numerous sources which have been employed will 
be mentioned in their proper places. 

* Ordinances of Menu ; Asiatic Researches, &c. 
\ Essay on the Philosophy of the Hindus ; Digest of the Hindu 
Law; Asiatic Researches. % Sketches of Hindostan. 

§ Religious Establishment of Mevar. 
|| Annals of Rajast'han. 
IT History of Central India and Malva. 
** Embassy to Cabul ; History of India, 
ff Mythology of the Hindoos. \% Mythologie des Indous. 
§§ Researches into Hindoo Mythology. 
|| || Essay on the Puranas ; Asiatic Researches, &c. 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE RELIGION OF 
THE HINDOOS. 



The religion of the Hindoos, which is called the 
Brahmin, is the most ancient of the present systems 
of religion upon the earth, and probably one of 
the oldest ever known ; in this respect, therefore, 
it is deserving of a high degree of attention. The 
doctrine is based upon the books of religion held 
sacred by the Hindoos, called Vedas, written in 
the ancient Sanscrit, which bears the same rela- 
tion to the present dialects of the Sanscrit, the 
Hindostanee, Bengalee, Tamul, &c, as the Gothic 
does to the Swedish, and the Latin to the French 
and Italian, (fhe Hindoos maintain that the 
Vedas (four books) are contemporary with the 
creation, and were revealed by Brahma himself) 
The sacred volume begins with these words : — 
" (There is only one God, Brahma, omnipotent, 
eternal, omnipresent, the great soul, of which all 
other gods are but parts\" Nevertheless the 
Vedas do not address their hymns to this only 



10 GENERAL VIEW OF THE 

God, but to things created by him, as the sun, the 
moon, the stars, the earth, fire, &c. ; so that this 
religion, although Monotheistic in its fundamental 
principle, is tinctured with a kind of Sabceism, 
which probably constituted the early religion at 
the time when the ancestors of the Hindoos still 
dwelt in that country from which they came to 
India (from 2500 to 3000 years before Christ). 
The Vedas also contain a Cosmogony, the most 
ancient that is known. 

The second stadium in the development of the 
religion of the Brahmins commenced about the 
time when an abstract from the Vedas, deno- 
minated the Vedanta, gave a more decided form 
to the doctrine, and brought it into a closer con- 
nexion. This stadium may be termed the pure 
Monotheistic of the religious doctrine of the 
Hindoos (2000 years before Christ). 

The third stadium is that when a new Codex, 
under the name of the laws,* institutions, or ordi- 
nances of Menu, imparted to the doctrine another 
character, and brought it from Monotheism to the 

* Institutions is the term employed by most Hindooists, though 
Colebrooke, in his translation of Menu, has used the word ordi- 
nances. 



RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 1 1 

principle of Pantheism (See Sir William Jones's 
Translation of the Laws of Menu, Cap. I. 5, 6, 7, 8) ; 
adopted inferior deities (Cap. I. 35), saints (Menus) 
(Cap. I. 36), and genii (Cap. I. 37), and introduced 
the doctrine of the transmigration of souls (Cap. I. 
50, 55). This took place 900 years before Christ.* 

The fourth stadium, in the development of the 
Hindoo religion, is that when the Puranas^ 1 (18 
in number) brought the doctrine from the prin- 
ciple of the Unity to that of the Trinity, or more 
correctly speaking, combined the principle of the 
Trinity with that of the Unity, and moreover 
adopted the doctrine of the incarnation. 

The fifth stadium is that when the Upa-Pura- 
nas (the lesser Puranas, % which may be compared 
with the Legends of the Roman Catholics) exalted 
a number of pious men to be saints or demi-gods, 
and when the Poets, like Homer, in connexion 
with the Upa- Puranas, wove the my thological net 
which now surrounds the Brahmin doctrine (800 
years before Christ). 

The sixth stadium (which may be denominated 

* Mountstuart Elphinstone, History of India, Vol. i. pp. 429, 
430. 

| Sir William Jones, Laws of Menu, son of Brahma, 
f Wilson, Essay on the Puranas. 



12 VIEW OF THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

that of the Reformation) commenced when the 
doctrine of the Buddalis caused the great 
schism which at length divided the Brahmin 
mother-church into two principal branches, of 
which the creed of the one, namely Brahmaism, is 
acknowledged by far the greater part of the 
Hindoo nation, and that of the other, namely 
Buddhism, has spread itself, under different deno- 
minations, throughout the whole of eastern Asia, 
as well as into several other parts of the earth (600 
years before Christ.) 

These different stadia, in the development of 
the religion of the Hindoos, will, in the course of 
the present essay, be brought more closely to view. 
But in the first place I consider it necessary to 
delineate the character of the people, whose reli- 
gious doctrines I shall afterwards endeavour to 
lay down. 



13 



OF THE DIVISION OF CASTES AMONG 
THE HINDOOS. 



The foundation stone of the social state of the 
Hindoos is the division of Castes. Its first origin 
is found in the precepts of Menu, which Brahmi- 
nical system sets up this division as a religious 
doctrine. This explains the wonderful pheno- 
mena, that a social state, so much opposed to 
that desire of equality so deeply implanted in 
the human heart, should have been maintained 
with little change for nearly three thousand 
years. 

According to the sacred writings of the Hin- 
doos, Brahma created four kinds of men, each of 
which forms a peculiar caste. He created the first 
out of his head ; this is that of the Brahmins, 
whose business it is to guide and instruct mankind ; 
the second he created out of his arm, Khetry 



14 OF THE DIVISION OF CASTES 

(Ketre), for the purpose of defending and pro- 
tecting the human race ; the third Vaisyas, he 
created out of his body, who was to nourish man- 
kind ; and the fourth Sudras, he created out of his 
feet, in order to serve and obey the other castes. 

In conformity with this law it is reserved for 
the Brahmin alone to explain the sacred writings, 
and he alone can be invested with the priesthood, 
from which the other castes are excluded. He is, 
moreover, the physician (for sickness is a punish- 
ment for certain transgressions) ; he is also the 
judge, for who can be better acquainted with the 
laws of the land contained in the sacred book.* 
He alone therefore has the right to explain them. 

Together with these occupations, which belong 
to him exclusively, the Brahmin can also exercise 
those which appertain to the next two castes ; he 
can bear arms like the Khetrys, and follow trade 
like the Vaisyas. 

From these various employments of the Brah- 
mins arise the different classes which are found 
among them. The highest class is that which 

* The sacred books of the Hindoos, especially the Institutions 
of Menu, contain, like the Alcoran, both criminal and civil laws, 
as well as the precepts of religion. 



AMONG THE HINDOOS. 15 

expounds the sacred writings (the Priests). Its 
members are treated with the greatest reverence 
even by kings ; their lands are exempt from all 
taxes, and they themselves from corporal punish- 
ment; to kill one of these Brahmins is the 
greatest of crimes. With these privileges the 
Brahmins however are subjected to such severe 
duties, that (celibacy excepted) very few of the 
Catholic monks can bear a comparison with them. 
The Brahmin must spend a number of years in 
the house of his instructor (Guru), until he can 
well expound the Vedas, which is a long and 
tedious study. Then only he may, or rather he 
must, marry, and become the father of a family. 
His daily life is bound by a strict ritual ; the many 
prayers, ablutions, and sacrifices imposed upon 
the Brahmin demand a great portion of his time, 
as the facility with which he may defile himself 
(which must be atoned for by penance) requires 
uncommon vigilance. They may not eat with one 
of a lower caste, no not even with a prince ; they 
are not allowed to kill any living animal unless 
for sacrifice ; they may not eat any meat but 
what is sacrificed. In old age it is a rule, or at 
least a custom, for the Brahmins to go into soli- 



16 OF THE DIVISION OF CASTES 

tude, and to devote themselves to self-beholding 
(contemplation), whereby alone Nirvani (absorp- 
tion into the Supreme Being) can be obtained. 
They have an hierarchical discipline, which ex- 
poses them to severe punishments ; but this is 
necessary, as the number of Brahmins engaged in 
the service of the temples is very considerable, 
and in Jagernaut amounts to more than 3000. 

Tit is remarkable how the Brahmin is distin- 
guished, throughout the whole of India, from 
the lower castes, by a lighter and finer colour, by 
more noble features, and by a larger and more 
beautiful figure. 

Next to the Brahmin-caste comes that of the 
Khetry or TVarriors. This caste has undergone 
great changes, owing to the numerous conquests 
to which India has been exposed. Under such 
circumstances this caste could not continue in its 
old form , for it was necessarily first affected by the 
storm ; it has in consequence almost ceased to be 
a caste, and transformed itself rather into a tribe, 
exercising together with the profession of war the 
more peaceful occupations of trade, husbandry, 
and business. All the inhabitants of Rayasthan, 
(Raypoot), belong to the Khetry-caste, as also 



AMONG THE HINDOOS. 17 

those of Malva, Bundelkund, Oude, Punjab, and 
Merva. They resemble in this respect the Bis- 
cayans in Spain, who to a man insist that they are 
nobles. The law allows the Khetry to hear the 
Vedas, but not to read them, and still less to 
expound them. They must give alms, but not 
receive them; they must flee sensual pleasures, 
and live frugally as becomes a warrior. With few 
exceptions, the Kings and Princes of India belong 
to this caste, which in this respect may be consi- 
dered as the first, although, according to the laws 
of Menu, it is subordinate to the caste of the 
Brahmins. 

The Valsyas form the industrious caste, which 
comprises merchants, tradesmen, and husbandmen. 
Of these occupations, however, each constitutes a 
particular branch of the common caste, and they 
fall among themselves into a multitude of sub- 
divisions, which, in the class of tradesmen (con- 
sisting of goldsmiths, joiners, carpenters, potters, 
&c), correspond pretty nearly to our companies or 
guilds, and also in many respects follow the same 
regulations. In Bengal, where the division of 
castes is more strictly observed than in the other 
parts of India, these subdivisions do not inter- 

c 



18 OF THE DIVISION OF CASTES 

mingle with each other, not even by marriage ; so 
that goldsmiths, joiners, potters, and others, all 
form their peculiar caste. 

The Brahmins, Khetrys, and Vaisyas, wear a 
girdle or cord, called zenaar, which is different 
for each particular caste. They are termed, in 
the laws of Menu, the twice-born, or the new-born, 
because the girding with the cord is regarded as 
a new birth. 

The fourth caste, the Sudras, belongs to the 
but once-born, for they are not girded with the 
cord. A Sudra, says Menu, acts best if he serves 
a Brahmin, and next a Khetry ; and lastly, a 
Vaisya. If he finds no opportunity of serving 
any of these, let him follow a useful trade. He 
who faithfully serves a Brahmin, shall, in a future 
metempsychosis, come into a higher caste. 

The laws of Menu allow mixed marriages to 
the three higher castes, yet only at the second 
marriage, when a man of a higher caste can take 
a wife from a lower ; but a lady of a higher caste 
can never marry with a man of a lower. To 
belong to the same caste as the father, the son 
must have a mother of the like caste ; the son of 
a Brahmin must therefore, in order to belong to 



AMONG THE HINDOOS. 19 

the Brahmin caste, also have a Brahmin mother. 
The Sudras can only marry within their own 
caste ; a mixture of Sudras with a higher caste 
produces Mandras, who are considered as an 
unclean caste. The most impure of all are the 
Pahrias, for they are without caste. The degra- 
dation of a Pahria extends so far, that even his 
shadow, if it falls upon a Brahmin, defiles the 
latter, and obliges him to plunge into the sacred 
waters of the Ganges, the Sarju, or the Nerbudda, 
in order to wash off the defilement. 

It is owing to mixed marriages that the number 
of castes has gradually increased to such an ex- 
tent, that in Bengal they now amount to 84, each 
with a particular name and occupation. 

The greatest calamity that can befall a Hindoo, 
is to lose caste, to which he can be sentenced by 
a court of justice. In this case the sight of him 
is avoided ; he is driven away wherever he shows 
himself. In comparison of this, the bann of the 
middle ages was a trifle. 

The castes of India cannot be compared with 
the Classes in Europe. The caste of the Brahmins 
(the spiritual order) is hereditary, which is not 
the case with the Christian Priesthood, which 

c 2 



20 OF THE DIVISION OF CASTES 

springs from the mass of the people, and opens its 
ranks to the poor as well as the rich, — to the 
plebeian as well as the patrician. Still less 
can the caste of the Brahmins be compared 
with the nobility of Europe; the latter is 
essentially knightly and martial. The caste of 
the Brahmins is, on the contrary, a didactic order, 
of a peaceful nature, forbidden even to shed blood, 
and subjected to the severest trials in its youth, to 
the most abstemious conduct in its manhood, and 
to the life of an anchorite in its old age. The 
privileges of the Brahmins therefore extend only 
to the intellectual world, and not to the material, — 
to power, honour, or wealth. 

Neither can the caste of the Khetrys or warriors 
be compared with the nobility of Europe, since its 
privileges over the other castes frequently con- 
sist only in being allowed, as common soldiers, to 
shed their blood in the service of their masters. 
The Khetry therefore possesses none of those pri- 
vileges which the nobility enjoy in most of the 
European states. 

Since, then, neither the caste of the Khetrys, nor 
that of the Brahmins, still less any other, can 
be compared with the nobility of Europe, or 



AMONG THE HINDOOS. 21 

correspond to the idea of an aristocracy, it follows 
that this element is entirely wanting in the social 
state of the Hindoos ; and this serves to explain 
the reason why the Despotism of the Indian 
Princes has been so unbounded, and why the 
people, incapable of making any resistance (for 
which purpose points of union and support are 
requisite), have done so little to defend their 
country and their hearths against foreign in- 
vaders, who, during many centuries, have sub- 
jugated it, and of whom the Affghans, the Moguls, 
and the Persians, in the fullest sense have verified 
the words of Brennus — Vce metis ! 

Every page of the history of the world shows 
that those states which are destitute of the aris- 
tocratic element (understood in its nobler sense, 
namely, as open to every kind of merit, and not 
exclusive, like the Roman or Venetian Patriciate), 
have soon degenerated either to the despotism of 
an individual, or to the still more dangerous 
despotism of polyarchy. 

History likewise shows, that all those nations 
which have performed great actions, and still 
preserved their liberty, from the Roman down to 
the British, have possessed within themselves a 



22 DIVISION OF CASTES AMONG THE HINDOOS. 

more or less influential aristocracy ; for the element 
which advances in the most persevering and steady 
manner, is without doubt the aristocratic. The 
mass of the people may be misled by their igno- 
rance, or be carried away by the impressions of 
the moment; kings may be seduced by those around 
them, and by their passions; may be inconstant 
in their purposes, — they are mortal; an aristocratic 
corporation is too numerous to be misled like a 
king ; — not numerous enough to be carried away by 
passion, like the mass of the people ; it resembles 
a man^m and enlightened, who never dies* 

* The necessity of an aristocratic element in a lawful but free 
state, as a counterpoise to the democratic, has been doubted by no 
statesman or philosopher, from Cicero (de Republica) down to 
Tocqueville (Democratic en Amerique). 



23 



OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY OF THE BRAHMIN- 
ICAL RELIGION, AND OF THE EARLY DE- 
VELOPMENT OF CULTURE AND OF SCIENCE 
IN INDIA. 



The most ancient book of religion of the Hin- 
doos is called Veda* (four books), and, according 
to the assertion of the Hindoos, is a revelation 
from Brahma himself. Plasaf has made an ab- 
stract of it, called Vedanta, which now forms the 
basis of the Brahmin doctrine. 

The right age of the Vedas has long formed an 
unsolved problem for the learned of Europe, some 
of whom have considered it to belong to a very 
early period ; others again as being more recent. 
At length a fixed point has been found from 
which to proceed in the Hindoo chronology ; this 

* In the plural Vedas. In the British Museum, there is a 
complete copy of the Vedas, which was brought from Jeyopoor 
in India by Colonel Polier ; it is in fourteen folio volumes. There 
is another complete copy in the Royal Library at Paris, written 
on palm-leaves. 

f Viasa is considered by some not as a proper name but as 
an appellative, signifying the Commentator. 



24 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

is the reign of king Nandi, which commenced 
400 years before Christ. * 

The sixth king before Nandi was Ajata Satru. 
If we reckon a reign of 30 years for each of these 
six kings, Nandi s included, there results a period 
of 210 years, which, added to the 400 years before 
Christ when Nandi began to reign, give for the 
commencement of the reign of Ajata Satru the 
date of 610 years before Christ 

Four different Pur anas specify in accordance 
the succession of forty-seven kings, t who reigned 
before Ajata Satru, from the great war between 
the royal races of the Panduides and the Kurnides, 
which is celebrated in the famous poem Mdhab- 
harata, where Krischna appears as the hero of the 
former. 

If here also we take an average of thirty years' 

* A date corresponding to this point of time has recently been 
discovered in an inscription on Tiruz Shah's column in Delhi ; a 
second on a rock at Girnas, by the Rev. — Stevenson ; and a 
third in Dauli, by Capt. Kittoe. Several inscriptions on medals 
(Sox the explanation of which we are indebted to the distinguished 
orientalist Professor Lassen of Bonn) bear testimony to this 
date of NandVs reign. 

I See Mountstuart Elphinstone's History of India, 1841, vol. 
i. page 267. The Pur anas also mention the number of years 
each king reigned, and these united make 1500 years, which 
gives an average of thirty-one years for each king. We have 
taken an average of thirty years. 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 25 

reign for each king, (which agrees with the usual 
proportion in India), there results a period of 
1410 years, which, added to the time when Ajata 
Satru began to reign (610 years before Christ), 
shows that the great war took place about 2000 
years before Christ. It was at this time Viasa 
made his abridgment of the Vedas under the 
name of the Vedanta, a circumstance he himself 
mentions in his work. 

Hence we find that the Vedanta was composed 
2000 years before Christ. With this guidance we 
can now find the correct age of the Vedas, of 
which the Vedanta, by Viasa, as has been already 
stated, is but an abstract. 

The Hindoos assert that the Vedas are several 
thousand years older than the Vedanta. This 
seems an exaggeration. However, the Vedas 
must be much older than the Vedanta, since the 
author of the latter gives, as a reason for under- 
taking his work, that the language of the Vedas 
was obsolete and unintelligible to the people of 
his age. 

This circumstance presupposes (especially among 
a people like the Hindoos, with the spirit of 
stability which prevailed among them) a period 



26 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

/ 

of at least some centuries. I Let us take 500, which, 
added to the 2000 years before Christ, when the 
Vedanta was written, gives an age of 2500 years 
before Christ for the Vedas* We must, more- 
over, not overlook the circumstance, that the first 
book of the Vedas is written in a far more an- 
cient Sanscrit than the three other books ; let us 
take three centuries for this difference of language, 
and we find that the first book of the Vedas (which, 
like the first book of Moses, or Genesis, contains 
the cosmogony of the Hindoo system of religion) 
must be 2800 years older than the birth of Christ,^ 
which, according to the Hebrew computation, is 
800 years before the time of Abraham. In so re- 
mote an age the Hindoos already possessed written 
books of religion. 

The abstract metaphysical questions which are 
treated of in these books, prove what a high degree 
of culture this people had at that time already 
attained. The Vedas thus express themselves : 
/^"The angels assembled themselves before the 
throne of the Almighty, and said with sub- 

* Sir William Jones computes the age of the Vedas to be 
about the same, but from different grounds. 

•f* Why we are so particular with regard to this chronological 
computation, will be seen in the sequel. 



OF THE BRAHMLNICAL RELIGION. 27 

O Ruder* we wish to know how the 
soul is united with the body; how the world 
was created ; how the soul comes into conjunction 
with the Divine; what is the magnitude and 
measure of the universe, of the sun, the moon, the 
stars, and the earth ; and what is the end of all ? " 
The answers given by Ruder worthily correspond 
to the depth of the questions proposed. Remark- 
able is the precision with which the immortality 
of the soul, and its existence when separate from 
the body, is expressed in the sacred writings of the 
Hindoos, and not merely as a philosophical pro- 
position, but as a doctrine of religion. 

In this respect the Hindoos were far in ad- 
vance of the philosophers of Greece and Rome, 
who considered the immortality of the soul as 
problematical. Of this we find proofs in the 
review of their opinions, as given by Cicero in his 
excellent treatise de Senectute, and also in his 
Qucestiones Tusculance. He there shows the un- 
certainty which prevailed among the ancient 
philosophers on this important point. They per- 
ceived, indeed, that as man's material qualities 
have no connexion with thought, memory, imagi- 
* That is one of the names of God. 



28 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

nation, Sec, that these qualities must therefore ap- 
pertain to something separate from the body, 
of a spiritual, indissoluble, and immortal nature, - 
which, after its release from its bodily prison, 
elevates itself above time and space to those f^N 
higher spheres where it can attain a degree of ^ 
happiness, wisdom, and perfection, of which the 
material part of man is insusceptible. Hence 
these philosophers drew the rash conclusion, that ^ 
the soul, independent of its future immortality, 
had also existed from eternity (had pre-existed), 
and consequently must be an emanation from the 
infinite, eternal Spirit, who fills the universe, 
having proceeded from the latter as beams from 
the sun, without diminishing its light, power, and 
warmth. This view of the soul's immortality 
leads, however, to the idea, that the object must 
rather be the quantity of bliss, wisdom, and per- 
fection which the soul of mankind can collec- 
tively attain, than its identity, with regard to the 
individual, which may come to the enjoyment of it. 
According to this view, Socrates at the hour of 
his death, and Socrates thousands of years after- 
wards, when infinitely advanced in perfection, 
could not be the same person, at least not other- 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 29 

wise than what Newton was as a child, compared 
with Newton when he discovered the motive 
powers of the planetary system ; and in such case 
how could Socrates in Elysium concern himself 
about Socrates in Athens ! 

But this annihilates what is most dear to man, 
the hope of his individual continuance after death, — 
a hope which, being grounded upon the rock of 
revelation, is of more value to him than all that 
metaphysical speculation can offer in its place. 

The Hindoos thus acknowledged the immorta- 
lity of the soul as an article of religion long before 
the time when a small number of philosophers in 
Greece and Rome had elevated themselves to 
this view, and when the mass of the people, 
sunk in materialism, sought at the altars of their 
gods nothing but temporal happiness}^ 

In a metaphysical point of view we find among 
the Hindoos all the fundamental ideas of those 
vast systems which, regarded merely as the off- 
spring of fantasy, nevertheless inspire admiration 
on account of the boldness of their flight, and of 
the faculty of the human mind to elevate itself 
to such remote etherial regions. We find among 
them all the principal doctrines of Pantheism, 



30 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

Spinozism, and Hegelianism ; of God as being one 
with the universe ;* of the eternal Spirit descended 
on earth in the whole spiritual life of mankind ; of 
the return of the emanative sparks after death to 
their divine origin ; of the uninterrupted alternation 
between life and death, which is nothing else but 
a transition between different modes of existence. 
All this we find again among the philosophers of 
the Hindoos, exhibited as clearly as by our modern 
philosophers, more than three thousand years 
since. 

The early civilization of India is also evident 
from the above-mentioned ancient code of laws, 
called The Institutions of Menu, which, in ad- 
dition to religious precepts, also contains, like 
the Koran, civil laws. It prescribes orders re- 
specting commerce, trade, and industry, which 
are still convenient; it fixes a rate of interest 
for money lent, prescribes a law respecting bills 
of exchange, and makes mention of a representative 

* To conceive God without any other individuality than 
that of the universe, is to resolve the Deity into a negation. To 
represent God as the soul of the universe, encompassed by the 
universe, as the soul of man is encompassed by his body, is differ- 
ent. In this case the universe is the manifestation of God, and 
not his own essence. 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 31 

paper coin, and all this a thousand years before 
our era. 

The Hindoos assert that Bhrim created the 
earth in the course of four great periods, called 
Yugs ; the first of which, Satya Yug, lasted 
1,728,000 years ; the second, Trita Yug, 1,296,000 ; 
the third, Dvapa Yug, 864,000 ; and the fourth, 
Kali Yug (the present period), will continue 
432,000 years.* 

A great diversity prevails in determining the 
commencement of the last Yug. According to 
Gentil, W. Jones, and Niebuhr, it commenced 
3 100 years before Christ ; but according to Bentley 
not earlier than 1003 years before Christ. The 
first Yug contains the Myth of the deluge ; the 
second the history of the commencement of the 
Indian empires, by the dynasties of the children 
of the sun and of the moon. Brigha, Indra, 
Pur a, TViswamitra, and Parasa Rama were 
living in this Yug; Vyasa in the third Yug. 

* The computation here adopted is considered by the best 
oriental authorities (Colebrooke, Niebuhr, Elphinstone, &c.) as 
agreeing most closely with the sacred books of the Hindoos. 
There are, however, other versions of these eras, specially Bud- 
dhistical, which deviate considerably from the former ; yet the 
greater or less fundamental number, 432, is found in them all, 
multiplied a number of times. 



32 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

The Vedas do not mention the Yugs at all. The 
Brahmins consider the numbers of the first three 
Yugs as an astronomical calculation. 

They all proceed from the number 432, which is 
the arithmetical centre of the Indian system, and 
indicates the revolutions of the heavens. Now, as 
the Brahmins assume that the equinox always 
takes place 55 seconds earlier every year, a period 
of 24,000 years is required for every such total 
revolution of the heavens ; and as each number of 
the four epochs of the world may be divided by 
24,000, it is clear that these periods express the 
motion of the stars. 

The antiquity of the Hindoo Astronomy has 
long been a disputed point among the learned of 
Europe. Cassini* Bailly,^ Gentil,* and Play/air^ 
maintain, that there are Hindoo observations 
extant which must have been made more than 
3000 years before Christ, and which evince even 
then a very high degree of astronomical science. || 
Other learned men, among whom are La Placed 

* Traits sur F Astronomic 

•f Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne ; and Astronomie des 
Indiennes. J Voyage dans les Mers des Indes. 

§ Astronomy of the Hindoos. 
|| Oriental Magazine, vol. v. p. 245. 
% Expose du Systeme du Monde. 



OF THE BRAHMINTCAL RELIGION. 33 

Bentley* and Delambre,^ deny the authenticity of 
these observations, and consequently do not admit 
the conclusions thence deduced. 

But these learned men, and Bentley especially, 
acknowledge the great antiquity of the Hindoo 
observations, although they do not consider them 
so ancient as is asserted by Bailly and Playfair. 
Bentley says, in his posthumous treatise, entitled, 
" History of Astronomy," that the division of the 
Ecliptic by the Hindoos into twenty-seven man- 
sions,must have been made 1442 years before Christ, 
which shows that they had even at that time at- 
tained a high degree of astronomical science. 
This was two centuries earlier than the Argonau- 
tic expedition, the first occasion on which the 
Greeks make mention of astronomical observa- 
tions made by themselves. 

Davis, who has also taken up this question, cal- 
culates that the celebrated Hindoo astronomer 
Parasura, judging from the observations made by 
him, must have lived 1391 years before Christ 
(Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 288), and conse- 
quently had read in the divine book of the hea- 

* Antiquity of the Surrya Sidclhanta ; and Astronomy of the 
Hindoos. f Astronomie des Peuples de l'Asie. 



34 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

venly firmament, long before the Chaldees, the 
Arabs, and the Greeks. 

Thus, if we reduce the age of the Hindoo obser- 
vations as computed by Bailly from 3000 years 
before Christ to the time calculated by Bentley, 
La Place, and Delambre, namely, 1442 years 
before our chronology, we have at all events 
this fact, that the Hindoos preceded all other 
nations in the application of the higher astronomy. 

According to the astronomical calculations of 
the Hindoos, the present period of the world, Kali- 
Yug,* commenced 3102 years before the birth of 
Christ, on the 20th of February, at 2 hours, 27 
minutes, and 30 seconds, the time being thus cal- 
culated to minutes and seconds. They say that 
a conjunction of the planets then took place, and 
their tables show this conjunction. Bailly states, 
that Jupiter and Mercury were then in the same 
degree of the ecliptic, Mars at a distance of only 
eight, and Saturn of seven degrees ; whence it 
follows, that at the point of time given by the 
Brahmins as the commencement of Kali-Yug, 
the four planets above mentioned must have been 

* Kali-Yug signifies the age of trouble, the iron age of the 
ancient Greeks. 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 35 

successively concealed by the rays of the sun (first 
Saturn, then Mars, afterwards Jupiter, and lastly 
Mercury). They thus showed themselves in con- 
junction ; and although Venus could not then be 
seen, it was natural to say, that a conjunction of 
the planets then took place. \ The calculation of the 
Brahmins is so exactly confirmed by our own 
astronomical tables, says Bailly, that nothing but 
an actual observation could have given so corre- 
spondent a result. He further informs us, that 
Laubere, who was sent by Louis XIV. as ambas- 
sador to the King of Siam, brought home, in the 
year 1687, astronomical tables of solar eclipses, 
and that other similar tables were sent to Europe 
by Patouillet (a missionary in the Carnatic), and 
by Gentil, which latter were obtained from the 
Brahmins in Tirvalore,* and that they all per- 
fectly agree in their calculations, although received 
from different persons, at different times, and from 
places in India remote from each other. 

On these tables Bailly makes the following ob- 
servation : — 

* What Cuvier cites in this respect (Discours sur les Revo- 
lutions du Globe, p. 235) is according to Bentley, but cor- 
rected by Bentley himself in his last work, referred to above. 
(See the Oriental Magazine, vol. v. p. 245, &c.) 

D 2 



36 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

" The motion calculated by the Brahmins during 
the long space of 4383 years (the period elapsed 
between these calculations and Bailly's) varies not 
a single minute from the tab]es of Cassini and 
Meyer ; and as the tables brought to Europe by 
Laubere in 1687, under Louis XIV., are older 
than those of Cassini and Meyer, the accordance 
between them must be the result of mutual and 
exact astronomical observations." 

Another proof may also be alleged in this 
respect, namely, that the Indian tables give the 
same annual variation of the moon as that disco- 
vered by Tycho Brahe ; a variation unknown 
to the school of Alexandria, and also to the 
Arabs, who followed the calculations of this 
school. 

These facts sufficiently show the great antiquity 
and distinguished station of astronomical science 
among the Hindoos of past ages. 

Geometry had also made similar early progress 
with this nation. 

We find in Ay en Akbaree, a journal of the 
Emperor Akbar y # that the Hindoos of former 

* He was born in 1555, and died in 1605, and was the father 
of Shah Jehan, and grandfather of the celebrated Aurung-Zeb. 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 37 

times assumed the diameter of a circle to be to 
its periphery as 1250 to 3927. The ratio of 
1250 to 3927 is a very close approximation to the 
quadrature of the circle, and differs very little 
from that given by Metius, of 1 13 to 355. In order 
to obtain the result thus found by the Brahmins, 
even in the most elementary and simplest way, it 
is necessary to inscribe in a circle a polygon of 
768 sides, an operation which cannot be performed 
arithmetically without the knowledge of some 
peculiar properties of this curved line, and at least 
an extraction of the square root of the ninth 
power, each to ten places of decimals. The Greeks 
and Arabs have not given anything so approxi- 
mate. 

But if it be true that the Hindoos, more than 
3000 years before Christ, according to Bailly's 
calculation (or even if the latter be reduced to 
1442 years before Christ, according to the calcu- 
lation of Bentley), had attained so high a degree 
of astronomical and geometrical learning, how 
many centuries earlier must the commencement 
of their culture have been, since the human mind 
advances only step by step on the path of 
science ! 



38 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

Besides the proofs adduced of the great anti- 
quity of the civilization of the Hindoos, there 
are others perhaps still stronger; namely, those 
gigantic temples hewn out of lofty rocks, with 
the most incredible labour, at Elephanta, at 
Ellora, and several other places ; which, with 
regard to the vastness of the undertaking, may be 
compared with the pyramids, and in an architec- 
tural respect even surpass them. 

Let us now examine if this high degree of 
culture, at so remote a period, was of Hindoo 
origin, and genuine in India, or borrowed from 
any other nation, preceding the Hindoos in art, 
science, and civilization. Only two nations can 
in this respect vie with the Hindoos, namely, 
the Egyptians and the Chinese. 

(The Persians (the Zend-people) may possibly 
emulate them with respect to the antiquity of 
their religion, but there is no trace among them 
of a degree of science, art, and civilization, at 
all comparable with the antiquity of that of the 
Hindoos. 

The Phenicians derived their religion and 
their culture from Egypt ; the Chaldeans, the Ba- 
bylonians, and the inhabitants of Cholchis, theirs 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 39 

from India. The progress of the Hebrews and the 
Greeks was later than that of Hindostan. Egypt 
and China are consequently the only countries, 
which, in this respect, can vie with the Hindoos. 

As all the ancient legislators rested their sys- 
tems upon religious sanction, and strove to found 
the institutions of time upon the basis of eternity, 
the surest way to ascertain which nation preceded 
the rest in civilization, is to examine the relative 
antiquity of its religion. 

On a comparison of the religion of the Egyp- 
tians and Hindoos, we are struck by the resem- 
blances between them. Both proceed from 
monotheistic principles, and degenerate into a 
polytheistic heathenism, though rather of a sym- 
bolic than of a positive character. They both 
adopt the principle of the Trinity, combined with 
that of the Unity* Both assume the pre-ex- 

* According to the discoveries of Champollion in the temple 
of Kalabski in Nubia (in 1829), it was a whole series of 
Triads of Gods that the Egyptians worshipped ; the first link of 
these Triads was Jmon-ras (the Genitor), Muth (the Genitrix), 
and Chous (the Son or the Production), a super-terrestrial Triad, 
which was converted into the more earthly one of Osiris, Isis, 
and Horus, with the same symbols as the preceding ; this Triad 
afterwards multiplied itself down to a concluding Triad, perfectly 
corresponding to the primitive. 



40 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

istence of the soul, its emanation from the Divine 
essence, its transmigration (metempsychosis), and 
its return after death to its Divine origin. # They 
both adopt the division of castes, and nearly upon 
the same grounds — of Priests (Brahmins), War- 
riors, Traders, and Agriculturists, and regarded 
this division as a religious principle.! 

Even the symbols are the same on the shores 
of the Ganges and the Nile. Thus we find the 
Lingam of the Siva-temples of India, in the 
Phallus of the Ammon-temples of Egypt ; a sym- 
bol also met with on the head-dress of the 
Egyptian gods.J We find the lotus-flower,^ as the 
symbol of the sun, both in India and in Egypt ; 
and we find symbols of the immortality of the 
soul in both countries. The power of rendering 
barren women fruitful, ascribed to the temples 
of Siva in India, was also ascribed to the temples 
of Amnion in Egypt; a belief retained to our 

* Vide the Timseus of Plato and Herodotus. 

f Vide Herodotus, Strabo, and Aristotle. 

J See Champollion Figeac's work on Egypt, plate 33, fig. 7, 
Osiris, and plate 91, Horus, the head-dresses of which represent the 
Hindoo Lingam. 

§ Nymphcea, which closes at the setting and opens at the 
rising of the sun. 



OF THE BBAHMINICAL RELIGION. 41 

days, for the Bedouin women may be still seen 
wandering around the temple of Ammon, for the 
purpose of obtaining this blessing. 

Even several names of Hindoo mythology are 
recognized in Egypt; thus Ammon, the supreme 
god of the Egyptians, corresponds to the Aum 
of the Hindoos; and the Brahminical Siva is 
found in the temple to which Alexander the 
Great made his pilgrimage from Egypt, and 
which yet bears this name.* 

These accordances between the religion of the 
Brahmins and that of the ancient Egyptians, 
leave no doubt that the one takes its origin from 
the other ; but which of the two is the root, may 
still be questionable. We will therefore pro- 
ceed to examine this point. The chronological 
dates seem to be in favour of Egypt. According 
to Maneihds tables of kings, which were found 
in the temple where he officiated, f the great 

* According to the accounts of the priests in Sais to Herodotus, 
two priestesses or prophetesses were sent from the great temple 
of Ammon in Thebes, to select spots in which sacerdotal temples 
might be erected ; the one pointed out Siva in the Lybian 
desert, the other Dodona (Bodona) in Epirus. The Greeks 
transformed these prophetesses into pigeons, the one white and 
the other black. 

"f Manetho was the high-priest in Heliopolis 360 years before 



42 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

pyramid of Gizeh was built by Soufi, the first 
Pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, who reigned 
5000 years before Christ (see the subjoined 
table), a statement confirmed by the drawings 
discovered in the interior of the same pyramid 
by Colonel TVyse (in 1838), showing the 
position of the stars when the pyramid was 
erected, which position, according to the calcula- 
tion made by Thilorier (in 1840), must have 
taken place 4950 years before Christ, conse- 
quently at the time given by Manetho for the 
reign of Soufi. 

The pyramid of Gizeh presents, however, no 
sculptures or drawings which lead to the sup- 
position that the religion of the Egyptians, at that 
time, was the same as that which a thousand 
years later was celebrated in the temples of 
Egypt, and which exhibits so much resemblance 
to the religion of the Hindoos. The immense age 
of the pyramids of Gizeh is consequently no proof 
that the religion of the Egyptians was older than 
that of the Hindoos. 

Christ. His annals have been lost, but portions of them are 
preserved in the extracts given of them by Josephus, Julius 
Africanus, and Eusebius. 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 43 

On the other hand, the derivation of the religion 
of the Egyptians from that of the Hindoos may be 
proved by the following grounds : — 

1st. It is testified by Herodotus, Plato, Solon, 
Pythagoras, and Philostratus, that the religion of 
Egypt proceeded from India. 

2ndly. It is testified by Niebuhr, Valentia, 
Champollion, and Waddington, that the temples 
of Upper Egypt are of greater antiquity than 
those of Lower Egypt; that the temples in Meroe 
are more ancient than those of Elephantine and 
Thebes; these more ancient than the temples 
of Tentyra and Abydos ; and these again more 
ancient than those of Memphis, Heliopolis, and 
Sais ;* that, consequently, the religion of Egypt, 
according to the testimony of these monuments, 
proceeded from the south, which cannot be from 
any other land than from Ethiopia and Meroe, to 
which country it came from India, as testified 
by the above-named Greek authorities-! 

* See Niebuhr's Travels, Lord Valentia's Travels in India, 
and Waddington's Visit to Ethiopia (1822). 

"f There are temples in Lybia, Ethiopia, and Upper Egypt, of 
far more recent date ; but these were constructed by Greek 
colonists, under the Ptolemies, and ought not to be confounded 
with the real Egyptian temples; their architecture is also 
Grecian. 



44 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

3rdly. The chronicles, found in the temples of 
Abydos and Sais, and which have been trans- 
mitted to us by Josephus, Julius Africanus, and 
Eusebius, all testify that the religious system of 
the Egyptians proceeded from India * 

4thly. The continent of Asia, with its vast 
mountain and table lands, possesses greater claims 
to be regarded as the locality where mankind 
first spread, than the narrow valley of the Nile, 
bounded by deserts. 

5thly. The earliest traditions of the most an- 
cient nations of the globe point to the high table- 
lands of Central Asia as the first home of the 
human race, and this high-land is close to India, 
but far from Egypt ; India must, consequently, have 
been inhabited earlier, and must therefore have de- 
veloped its religion and culture earlier than Egypt.t 

* Probably along the south coast of Arabia. The passage 
thither from the Indus was inconsiderable, and that from Arabia 
to Ethiopia by the straits of Bab-el-Mandel still less. The ancient 
geographers called by the name of Ethiopia all that part of 
Africa which now constitutes Nubia, Abyssinia, Senaar, Darfur, 
and Dongola. 

j Frederic Schlegel expresses himself in the following terms 
in his work entitled Sprache und Weisheit der Indier. The 
real primordial land is to be sought for in the northern parts of 
India, in the Bactrian high-land between India, Persia, and the 
sources of Gihon (Oxus), where everything combines to point 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 45 

6thly. We have Hindoo chronologies (besides 
those of the Pur anas concerning the Yugs, which 
are nothing but astronomical allegories), which 
go still further back in time than the tables 
of the Egyptian kings according to Manetho. 

Megasthenes, the envoy of Alexander to Kan- 
dragupso (the Greeks call him Sandrogypsos,) 
king of the Gangarides, discovered chronological 
tables at Polybothra the residence of this king, 
which contain a series of no less than 153 kings, 
with all their names, from Dionysius (if there 
ever was a king of this name in India), to K'an- 
dragupso, and specifying the duration of the reigns 
of every one of those kings, together amounting 
to 6451 years, which would place the reign of 
Dionysius nearly 7000 years before Christ, and 
consequently one thousand years before the eldest 
king found on the Egyptian tables of Manetho 
(viz., the head of the Tinite Thebaine dynasty), 
who reigned 5867 years before Christ, and 2000 
years before Soufi, the founder of the Gizeh 
Pyramid. 

out a common origin of our faith, our knowledge, and our 
history. This seems also to be the opinion of Baron Alexander 
Humboldt, and of Chevalier de Bunzen, two first-rate autho- 
rities. 



46 OF THE HIGH ANTIQUITY 

7thly. There is a tradition among the Abys- 
sinians, which they say they have possessed from 
time immemorial, and which is still equally 
received among the Jews and Christians of that 
country, that the first inhabitants (they say Cush, 
grandson of Noah, with his family) came over the 
chain of mountains, which separates the high 
lands of Abyssinia from the Red Sea and the 
Strait of Babel Mandel, from a remote southern 
country. The tradition further says, that they 
built the city of Aocum, early in the days of 
Abraham, and that from thence they spread 
themselves, following the river Nile downwards, 
until they became (as Josephus says) the Me- 
roetes ; viz.* the inhabitants of that part of Nubia, 
which, being situated between the Nile and its 
conflux the Atbara, forms what is commonly 
called the island of Meroe, from which they 
spread farther down the river, to Egypt. 

It appears, from the above-mentioned grounds, 
that the Hindoos have a greater claim to the 
primogeniture of religion, and consequently to 
the primogeniture of civilization, than the people 
of ancient Egypt. 

We now proceed to the history of China. 



OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 47 

The history of China, that is to say the certain 
period thereof, does not reach further hack than 
the reign of Schihoang (230 to 250 years hefore 
Christ), a very recent period compared with 
India,* in consequence of this emperor Schihoang 
having ordered all the historical writings then 
extant to he burnt. One manuscript, however 
(named Schuking), was saved in the sarcophagus 
of Koong-fu-tse -f (Confucius). It is this that now 
forms the only source for the history of China 
before Schihoang. 

According to this document, the Chinese nation 
is descended from the high-land to the north- 
west of China (Mongolia), whence, at a very 
remote period, their ancestors had come down 
into the plains of China, along the valleys formed 
by the rivers Hoangho and Hoiho. Fohi is men- 
tioned as the leader of the Chinese nation at that 
period, but the time when he lived is not deter- 
mined. That it was very remote, appears from the 

* The records of China extend indeed to the reign of Vuvang, 
1100 years before Christ, but they are only founded on 
tradition. 

f Koong-fu-tse was born 550 years before Christ, consequently 
400 years later than Menu, the law-giver of India. 



48 OF THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 

fact that the Indian Menu has named Fohi as 
an ancient chief of the people of China (Tsina). 

It is after this manuscript, that Koong-fu-tse 
composed the history of China, in which it is 
stated that Chinong, the twelfth successor of 
Fohi, reigned 2000 years before Christ. This 
statement is, however, uncertain, and leaves the 
question undecided, which of the two nations, 
the Chinese or the Hindoos, is the elder in 
civilization. 

What may be said with certainty is, that the 
religion of China came from India, namely, that 
religion professed by the mass of the nation; 
for the doctrine of Koong-fu-tse, although the 
state religion, is only professed by the higher 
classes ; Buddhism is the faith of the people, and 
came to China by two different routes, and in two 
different forms ; in the one it is called the doc- 
trine of Fo (Fuh-Budh), in the other that of Dalai- 
Lama. 

Fo (Budh), a holy man, came to China sixty 
years after the birth of Christ,* and began to 
publish his doctrine, which by degrees spread 
itself so considerably, that the far greater part of 

* Under the reign of Ming-ty and the dynasty Han. 



THE BRAHMINICAL RELIGION. 49 

the immense population of China, now profess this 
faith. 

Not long after the arrival of Budh, the first con- 
quest of China by the Mongolian Tartars took 
place ; and as these were worshippers of Dalai- 
Lama, a branch of Buddhism, this doctrine was 
introduced into China, and is still there professed 
by all those of Tartaric origin. 

The two above-named Sects form now a mass 
of no less than 300,000,000 of Buddhists, whilst 
the doctrines of Koong-fu-tse, with several kinds 
of rationalists, comprise about 20 millions, the 
population, according to Gutzlaf, being estimated 
at 320,000,000. 

The Chinese nation gives here a new proof that 
the bidk of a people cannot be satisfied with a 
religion founded only upon rational grounds, but 
eagerly seeks for a supernatural creed, which 
addresses itself more to the human heart, and 
teaches more consolatory convictions than those 
of cold philosophy. This fact is so much the. 
more remarkable, as the doctrine of Confucius 
is 600 years older in China than that of Fo, and 
alone entitles to admission to the offices of the 
state ; nevertheless, 300 millions bend the knee 

E 



50 THE BRAHMINIOAL RELIGION. 

to the Trimurti of Buddha, whilst few adhere to 
the doctrines of philosophy. 

What has been briefly stated here may be 
sufficient to show that no nation on earth can vie 
with the Hindoos in respect to the antiquity of 
their religion, and the antiquity of their civili- 
zation. 

But if civilization in India is very ancient, it has 
been so much the more stationary. There, also, 
time hastens forwards on his pinions, but is unable 
to put in motion the stiff form ; and the Hindoo 
stands still at the altars of his gods, as he did 
4000 years ago, at the time of the Panduits and 
the Kurnids, of Krischna and of Rama. In 
Europe everything is changeable, is transient; 
in India all is stationary, is immoveable, like 
the temples of Ellora, hewn out of the rocks. 



51 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 



According to what has been already stated, the 
Vedas form the basis of the religion of the Hin- 
doos. They consist of four distinct parts or books. 
Each Veda is composed of three divisions, the 
first of which, called Mantra, contains hymns and 
prayers to the Almighty ; the second, named 
Brahmana, consists of the precepts of religion and 
theological arguments; and the third, termed 
Upanishad, forms an abstract of the two preced- 
ing.* The Vedas were not composed by one and 
the same author, but by several, whose names are 
frequently given beneath the hymns and precepts 
of which they are the authors. 

To judge from the difference of the language, 
many centuries must have elapsed between the 

* There is a complete copy of the Vedas preserved in the 
British Museum, in fourteen folio volumes, which together form 
the four books of which the Vedas consist. There is another 
copy on palm leaves, with Talinna characters, and a third with 
Devanagari characters, in the library at Paris. These are pro- 
bably the only complete sets found in Europe. 

E 2 



52 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

composition of the first and last books of the 
Vedas. The Hindoos maintain that the Vedas 
are contemporaneous with the creation, and were 
revealed by Brahma himself. # Written in a me- 
taphorical style, they are not clear, and are often 
contradictory. Viasa, who is himself regarded as 
a holy being, made an abridgment of them 2000 
years before Christ, called Vedanta, that is to say, 
an explanation of the Vedas, which now consti- 
tutes the proper sacred scripture of the Hindoos, 
studied by the Brahmins. 

Only smaller portions of the Vedas have been 

translated into the European languages. Cole- 

\ brook e's English versions are most to be depended 

\ upon ; and although they are insufficient to enable 

6 us to form a right judgment of the actual contents 

of the doctrine exhibited, it is evident, however, 

that it was a monotheism, encompassed by a Sa- 

bceistic form, or founded upon it. 

The Vedas express themselves in the following 
manner : '( The angels assembled around the throne 



' 



* Properly Brahm or Brihm, as the Creator of the world ; he 

is also denoted by the mysterious monosyllable Aum, which, out 

,' of reverence, no Hindoo may pronounce aloud. Brahma, on 






_ the contrary, is the name of the first person in the Hindoo 
Trimurti, or triad of gods. 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 53 

of the Almighty, and asked with submissiveness 
who he himself were ? He then answered, ' Were 
there another than I, I should describe myself 
through him. I have been from eternity, and 
shall remain to eternity ; I am the first cause of 
all that exists in the east and west, and north 
and south, above and below ; I am all, older than 
all, the king of kings ; I am the truth ; I am the 
spirit of the creation, the Creator himself; I am 
knowledge, and purity, and light ; I am Almighty.' " 

These truly sublime ideas cannot fail to con- 
vince us, that the Vedas recognize one only God, 
who is Almighty, Infinite, Eternal, Self-existent, 
the light and the Lord of the universe. 

The purely monotheistic period of Brahmaism 
appears, however, not to have continued more 
than 1100 years, namely, from 2000 to 900 years 
before Christ, when a new commentator of the 
Vedas in a great measure altered the contents of 
the sacred Scripture. This commentator was 
Menu (Manu), which in fact is only the name of 
an interlocutor made use of in the work, not that 
of the author himself, who is unknown* 

This work is denominated the Laws (Ordinances, 
Institutions,) of Menu. It now forms the code of 






54 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

the Hindoos in a spiritual and temporal respect, 
as the Alkoran does for the Mahometans. 

Although the Vedas are referred to by Menu 
as the basis of the doctrine presented, this doc- 
trine deviates materially from the contents of the 
original text, and more especially in the following 
points : — 

1. Menu proceeds from other views than those 
of the Vedas, respecting the nature of the Almighty 
and the creation of the world. The Vedas declare 
that God created the world by the power of his 
own will. Menu affirms that God and the world 
are one ; that spirit and matter are inseparable ; 
that all is God, and that God is all.* 

2. Menu introduces the division of castes as a 
doctrine of religion, on which subject the Vedas 
say nothing. 

3. Menu introduces the doctrine of the trans- 
migration of souls (metempsychosis), which is 
not mentioned in the Vedas. 

But the Brahmin religion received a still fur- 

* We here recognize the basis of Spinoza's substance — pan- 
theism, from which Fichte's idealism and Hegel's ideal-pantheism 
have developed themselves; all being thus derived from, or agree- 
ing with, the fundamental ideas of the Hindoo philosophy, although 
subsequently more elaborated by the German philosophers. 



/ 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 55 

ther development by means of the Puranas (a 
kind of legends, eighteen in number), also re- 
garded as sacred by the Hindoos, which bring the 
doctrine from the principle of the unity to that of 
the triad or trimurti, or rather combine the princi- 
ple of the triad with that of the unity. The Puranas 
moreover introduce the principle of the incarnation, 
1 under the name of the doctrine of the Avatars. 
The Trimurti of the Hindoos seems to have 
originated in the following manner. The Vedas 
represent the Almighty as Creator, Preserver, 
and Destroyer, and in the last character in respect 
to the four great periods of the world, or Yugs, 
which, according to the Vedas, are separated from 
each other by means of great universal destruc- 
tions. From these three attributes the Puranas 
form three distinct deities, under the names of 
Brahma (the Creator), Vishnou (the preserver), 
and Siva (the destroyer.)* 

* The association in the Deity of the principle of destruction 
with that of creation, is one of the fundamental ideas of the 
Brahmin doctrine, and is frequently expressed in their sacred 
books in a very sublime manner. Thus, for instance, say the 
Vedas, in their cosmogony : " Numberless are the revolutions in 
the world, the creations, destructions, and re-creations. He, 
the Almighty, brings them forth, as it were, in sport • lets death 
follow life, and life death." 



56 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

According to the Puranas, Vishnou and Siva 
have descended upon earth in a human form, as 
Redeemer, in order to deliver mankind from the 
ever-increasing power of the evil spirit. These 
manifestations are called Avatars. Of Vishnou 
they reckon nine of them, of Siva two, and under 
each of these they worship the Divine Being.* It 

* Chateaubriand, in his work entitled Genie du Christianisme 
(vol. v., p. 10), has the following passage : " Le Pere Bouchet 
(a Jesuit missionary in India) a dans sa lettre a 1'tSveque 
d'Avranches donne* les details les plus curieux sur le rapport des 
fables Indiennes avec les principales verites de notre religion, et 
les traditions de V ecriture." In page 33, Chateaubriand cites 
Father Bouchet* s own words, which are as follow : " Je com- 
mence par l'id£e confuse que les Indiens conservent encore de 
l'adorable Trinite*. Je vous ai parte, monseigneur (the Bishop 
of Avranches), des trois principaux Dieux des Indiens, Brahma, 
Vishnou, et Rudren. (Ruder, not Rudren, is one of the many 
names which the Hindoos give to the third person of the Trinity, 
Siva) 

" La plupart des gentils disent a la verite*, que ce sont trois 
divinite's differentes et effectivement separees ; mais plusieurs 
hommes spirituels assurent que ces trois Dieux separes en appa- 
rence ne font reellement qu!un seul Dieu ; que ce Dieu s'appelle 
Brahma, lorsqu'il cree, et qu'il exerce sa toute-puissance ; qu'il 
s'appelle Vishnou, lorsqu'il conserve les etre crees, et qu'il donne 
des marques de sa bonte* ; et qu'enfin il prend le nom de Rudren 
(Siva), lorsqu'il detruit les villes, qu'il chatie les coupables, et 
qu'il fait sentir les efFets de sa juste colere." 

"Lies fables des Indiens ont encore plus de part dans ce qui 
regarde le Mystere de V incarnation ; tous les Indiens conviennent, 
que Dieu s'est incur n'e plusieurs fois. Presque tous s'accordent 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 57 

is in this way that Monotheism has been trans- 
formed in India, first into the doctrine of the 
Trimurti, and afterwards, by the addition of a 
multitude of other gods, into a complete poly- 
theistic creed. 

The Brahmin doctrine is now divided into 
several branches, each of which has many sub- 
divisions. 

The following are the principal branches : — 
1st. Vedantism, so named after the Vedanta of 
Viasa. It has few adherents, consisting of some 
philosophical Brahmins, such as Ram-Mohun- 
Roy* Of the thousands of temples in India, there 
is only one consecrated to this doctrine, in which 
Brahma is worshipped alone. 

a attribuer les incarnations a Vishnou, le second Dieu de leur 
Trinite ; et jamais ce Dieu s'est incarne selon eux, qu'en qualite* 
de sauveur et de liberateur des hommes." 

What Chateaubriand subsequently states of the religion of the 
Hindoos is full of errors, and betrays an ignorance of the subject 
so much the more unpardonable, since the works of Sir "William 
Jones, as well as those of Colebrooke, were published long before 
Chateaubriand's Genie du Christianisme. 

* Ram-Mohun-Roy made the most lasting impression upon 
every one acquainted with him, by his noble appearance, his dig- 
nified behaviour, and his prudent discourse. He came to London 
in 1831, and died there in 1836. He was a perfect master of the 
English language, as well as of the Sanscrit, Persian, Hindos- 
tanee, and Bengalee. 



58 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

2nd. Vishnouism. This doctrine raises the se- 
cond person of the Hindoo Trimurti {Vishnou) 
to the highest place, and adores his different 
Avatars, together with a multitude of other 
deities, powers of nature, and mythical persons. 
Its professors are called Vaishnadas, and amount 
to more than 100 millions. They have temples 
throughout every part of India, and Brahmins 
and Bayaderes* who minister in them. 

The Vaishnadas fall into two principal divi- 
sions. One of them adores Rama in the first 
place, as the seventh of the incarnations of 
Vishnou ; the other, Krischna the eighth of 
these incarnations. Rama was a royal prince of 
Oude, who conquered a great part of India, and 
even the island of Ceylon. Krischna was a prince 
of the royal family in Mathra, on the river 
Jumna, and extended his conquests to the west, 
even to Guzerat, where he founded a kingdom. 
Their exploits are celebrated in the great epic 
poems, Ramajana and Mahab-harata. 

Both Rama and Krischna were without doubt 
historical personages, who have been exalted to 

* They are brought up for the temple service, and receive a 
more careful education than the Hindoo women in general. 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 59 

avatars by the Hindoo legend. Rama is a hero of 
little interest ; Hunaman, his counsellor, of some- 
what more, although half a monkey and but half 
a man. Krischna, on the contrary, is represented 
beautiful and eloquent as Apollo, strong and 
valiant as Mars, joyful and voluptuous as Bacchus, 
marching at the head of his army, as formerly 
the god of wine did, and surrounded by intoxi- 
cated satyrs and dancing Bacchantes. But how 
sensual, how gross, is this representation of an 
avatar of the Deity, a mediator and redeemer I 
How infinitely remote from the one true and holy 
doctrine, in which self-denial is opposed to sen- 
suality ; love of mankind, to the destructions of the 
warrior ; and the sorrow of the cross, to the 
shout of triumphal procession ! Although the 
external form exhibits a deceptive resemblance, 
yet their inward spirit is as different as night 
from day. 

3rd. Sivaism. It places the third person (Siva) 
of the Hindoo Trimurti highest in the rank of 
the gods. The professors of this doctrine call 
themselves Saivas, and their number amounts to 
many millions. Although Siva is the god of 
destruction, he is also the god of production, con- 



60 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

sidered with respect to the idea which ever per- 
vades the doctrine of Brahma, namely, that 
death is but the re-commencement of a renewed 
life. Therefore Siva is also worshipped under 
the symbols of procreation, the Lingam and 
Yoniy* symbols to be found in all the temples 
of Siva. The priestesses of these temples, like 
the vestal virgins in ancient Rome, take a vow of 
chastity, the violation of which is punished with 
death; a severity the more remarkable, as the 
priestesses of the other gods are Bayaderes, with 
a very different vocation, that of sacrificing to 
sensual love, for the profit of their temples ! How 
great are the inconsistencies of the human mind ! 
while virtue, decorum, and chastity are presented 
as offerings in the one temple, the least deviation 
therefrom is punished with death in the other ; 
and this is the temple of Lingam ! 

We have seen how the monotheistic principle 
of Brahmaism, has degenerated to a polytheism, 
which was still to be increased by the aid of 

* Lingam is also the symbol of the creating sun, and Yoni 
that of the receptive earth. This dualism became the mother 
of the trialism in one of the Buddhist sects, when, to the 
two foregoing principles of creation, the product (Buddha) was 
added. 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 61 

poetry ; the heroes who had distinguished them- 
selves by courage, virtue, or beneficence, were 
deified by the poets of India, as Bacchus, Her- 
cules, and Satur?i formerly were by the poets of 
Greece. Goddesses were added as consorts of 
the gods, personified powers of nature, elements, 
heavenly bodies, rivers, fountains, trees, fyc, by 
which means the Hindoo Olympus has so in- 
creased that the number of the gods can no 
longer be calculated. The more enlightened, 
especially the Brahmins, do not share this 
idolatry, but still support superstition on moral 
grounds. Human reason, they say, immersed in 
meditation on the Divine Being, grows weary of 
a way on which it cannot reach the goal. To 
give but a metaphysical deity to men immersed 
in sensual objects, is to make them atheist s y — is to 
make them miserable. 

The bulk of the people will neither be satisfied 
with, nor can they be guided by, a deity conceiv- 
able only in thought ; they require objects which 
may be contemplated by the senses, and by means 
of these they gain a calmness of conviction, and a 
peace in their conduct, which weigh more in 



62 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

the scale of life than all that philosophy has 
to offer. 

How far the Hindoos have lost by the adoption 
of this principle, is a question which does not 
belong here ; but this is certain, that if, in any 
country, the rational doctrine of the progressive 
school should spread itself so as to descend into 
the cottage, the angel would flee away who brings 
consolation therein. 

The first want of man is faith ; but few are 
capable of raising themselves above the simple 
faith to the speculative ; bodily toils, daily oc- 
cupations, and worldly delights prevent them ; 
the mass remains within the narrow circle of 
the former ; nor is it on that account to be pitied, 
for what it loses in expansiveness it gains in 
intensity of faith. Our knowledge is in all cases 
so small, that somewhat more or less is of little 
import ; it is therefore perhaps best not to inves- 
tigate what is impenetrable, and to pass the few 
remaining days in tranquillity, until the soul, freed 
from its earthly tenement, elevates itself to the foun- 
tain of truth, where it shall find the light, and see the 
problem solved which unites faith and knowledge. 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 63 

Maimonides, Leibnitz, Kant, Schleiermacher, 
Schelling, and many others, have endeavoured 
to combine rationalism with supernaturalism, 
philosophy with theology, but in vain. The 
natural cannot be combined with the superna- 
tural.* Let philosophy soar into the remotest 
etherial regions ; it does honour to the intellec- 
tual power of man. May religion remain on 
earth in her simple white garment, — she brings 
peace, philosophy does not. 

May philosophy speak its own language, Titer o- 
glyphically ; may the language of religion be 
clear, practical, popular ; not high-flown, but elo- 
quent by its simplicity ; thus has the teacher taught. 

* The logical Spinoza expresses himself in the following 
manner, in his theologico-political treatise, cap. 15. " Theology 
is neither subject to reason, nor reason to theology : they who 
know not how to separate philosophy from theology, dispute 
whether Revelation (the Bible) should be subordinate to philo- 
sophy, or the contrary ; that is to say, whether the sense of 
Scripture should be in conformity with reason, or reason agree- 
able to Scripture. The latter is assumed by the Sceptics, who 
deny the sufficiency of reason ; and the former by the Dogmatists. 
It follows, from what has been said, that both greatly err ; for 
whichsoever of these opinions we adopt, we must necessarily do 
violence either to reason or to Scripture. I have shown that 
Scripture does not teach philosophy, but only godliness, and that 
its whole contents are adapted to the capacity of the people. He, 
therefore, who will judge of Scripture from a philosophical point of 



64 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

In this way both may contribute to the hap- 
piness of mankind, the one by enlarging its 
horizon, the other by augmenting its peace of 
mind. In proportion as man advances in know- 
ledge, philosophy opens an extensive field to his 
exploring eye, and he can then endure the stronger 
light; the uneducated cannot; he is blinded by it, 
and falls a prey to his doubts. 

But what is your meaning, it will be asked? 
Will you divide Christians into two classes, of en- 
lightened and unenlightened, of sceptics and credu- 
lous, of deceivers and deceived ? No ! We wish 
every man to attain the light of truth ; we wish 
that the divine doctrine of religion may find ad- 
mission into every breast ; that all may be equally 
enlightened, equally virtuous, and equally re- 
ligious. But when can this be? May it take 
place in the millennial kingdom! We know 
that mankind is divided into educated and unedu- 
cated, as well as into rich and poor ; into talented 

view, must attribute to the prophets much that they never 
thought of, and give a false interpretation to their meaning. 
On the other hand, he who makes philosophy subject to religion, 
must allow the prejudices of the bulk of the people in former 
times to be regarded as divine things, and suffer himself to be 
deceived by them. Both of them, therefore, the one with reason 
and the other without reason, will bring forth absurdities." 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 65 

and untalented, as well as into great and small. 
May philosophy, therefore, be that treasure of the 
temple which may not be lavished on the multitude 
in its outer court* 

Moreover there is so much true philosophy in 
Christianity, that no one is a loser by keeping to 
Christianity alone. 

The expositions of the Brahmins on their sacred 
writings are chiefly directed to give instruction in 
that part of them which relates to the transmigra- 
tion of souls, — a doctrine which gives a peculiar 
character to the whole earthly conduct of the 
Hindoo nation. If the doctrine of a, future spirit- 
ual life of reward or punishment forms a power- 
ful restraint for the mind of man, how much 
more powerful must not that doctrine be, which 
says, that there is a future earthly life of hap- 
piness, power, and wealth, which rewards for 
virtues practised in this life ; and a future earthly 
life of unhappiness, oppression, and poverty, which 

* Our view is grounded on facts, namely : 1st, that philosophy 
exists, and cannot be stifled ; 2nd, that the bulk of mankind 
cannot understand it, and by immature apprehension of it would 
be rendered miserable. The view which will combine both, 
proceeds from piis desideriis ; it is beautiful in theory, but not 
practical. 



66 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

punishes for faults committed; so that in this 
manner the present and the future are connected 
in one unbroken chain, which, though forged by 
error, must be as strong as death. 

It is to this doctrine that we must ascribe those 
moral phenomena of daily occurrence in India, 
which excite the admiration or abhorrence of the 
European spectator. With trembling he beholds 
the young widow, and not unfrequently of an aged 
husband, whom she scarcely knows and seldom 
loves, at his death courageously ascend the funeral 
pile, and burn herself alive. # With astonishment 
he sees the pilgrim at Jagernaut throw himself 
under the carriage of the idol, to be crushed to 
death by its wheels ; and with horror he sees, in 
Rayasthan, a father smother his own daughter, 
in the hope that she will soon return to the earth, 
in a happier male form. 

Yet the father's heart does not beat less warmly 
in India than in Europe ; the Hindoo also loves 
life too well to sacrifice it beneath the carriage of 

* This ancient custom, termed Suttee, although strictly pro- 
hibited by the British government, is still frequently practised, 
as also the equally fanatical custom, in some parts of India, of 
suffocating in milk some of the female children immediately after 
their birth. 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 67 

an idol ; and the wife longs no more there for the 
funeral pile than in Europe ! What, then, is the 
cause of this self-denial ? The doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls. He who sacrifices him- 
self helieves that he will soon return to this world 
in a happier state, as a reward for his deed ; and 
indeed the short journey hence and hither again 
is less gloomy, less perilous than one into the 
unknown regions of the spiritual world. 

According to the doctrine of Brahma the trans- 
migration of the soul is not inevitable. By piety, 
virtue, and a strict obedience to the precepts of 
religion, the human soul may, without transmi- 
gration, immediately attain Nirvani, — that is, 
happiness, which, according to the faith of the 
Hindoos, is a return to its high origin, — absorption 
into its divine essence. 

Although steadfast in his faith, the Hindoo is 
not fanatical ; he never seeks to make proselytes. 

If the Creator of the world, he says, had given 
the preference to a certain religion, this alone 
would have prevailed upon the earth; hut as 
there are many religions, this proves the ap- 
probation of them by the Most High. " Men of 
an enlightened understanding (says the Brahmin) 

f2 



68 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 

well know that the Supreme has imparted to each 
nation the doctrine most suitable for it, and he 
therefore beholds with satisfaction the various 
ways in which he is worshipped." They regard 
God as present in the mosques, with those who 
kneel before the cross, and in the temple where 
Brahma is worshipped. And is not this faith 
more in accordance with the true doctrine of 
Christ, than that which lighted the Auto da fe 
for the infallibility of the popes, for the divinity 
of Mary, and for the miracles of the saints ? 

What Brahma's doctrine now requires is a 
Reformer, who, like Luther, would be able to re- 
store it to its original purity. Ram-Mohun-Roy 
made the attempt, but was unsuccessful; and 
every one will fail in Asia who does not assume 
the form of a new Avatar. 

In its present state the Brahmin doctrine 
is a confused mixture of good and evil, of 
idealism and materialism, of superstition and liber- 
tinism, of deism and pantheism ; but from this 
chaos of contending elements, here and there a 
flash of so excellent a nature shoots forth, that 
it might be deemed an omen of that mild light, 
which, manifested by the Redeemer, conducts us 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 69 

through the night of life, as the pillar of fire once 
led the sons of Israel to the promised land. # 

We know that, " In the beginning, when God 
created the heaven and the earth, when the earth 
was without form and void, and darkness was on 
the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved 
on the face of the waters," the naked rock alone 
rose from the abyss ; that after a chaotic night 
of countless ages a new period of creation began 
(in the figurative language of the Holy Scripture, 
a day of creation), which kindled vegetable life, 
first in the lowest link of the chain, the humble 
moss, rising in its gradual development to the 
nobler plants, with the lofty, ever-verdant palm at 
their head ; that after new successive revolutions, 
organic life began in its lowest link, the zoophyte, 
when it gradually rose to the Crustacea, the am- 
phibia, and the fish; that after renewed con- 
vulsions, which raised the bed of the ocean above 
the clouds, and cast down alps into the abysses of 
the sea, those monsters of the primaeval world 
arose, which have now happily disappeared, but 

* Von alien Keligionen, welche in der moralischen und poli- 
tischen Welt unvertilgbare Spuren zuriick liessen, hat Keine 
so allmachtig wie das Christenthum gesiegt, geherrscht, verwan- 
delt, und gebildet. — Brinkman's Philosophische Ansichten. 



70 THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS, 

whose fossil remains furnish irrefragable proofs 
of their existence; that at a subsequent stage 
these were replaced by creatures of a higher kind, 
the mammalia; and that finally, in the last of 
those periods of creation, the noblest work of the 
Almighty, man, appeared on the earth, and 
thoughtfully surveyed the paradise that lay 
stretched out before him. 

But if, in the course of this immeasurable pe- 
riod, there has been a constant development in 
every succeeding stage, as well of the material as 
of the organic creation, — if the former has ad- 
vanced from the naked rock which " at first stood 
alone in the waters," to those delightful hills, 
valleys, mountains, and fields covered with noble 
and luxuriant plants, which now form the riches 
of the earth ; and the latter has risen from the 
lowest link of organic creation to that glorious 
image of his Creator, man ; may not this develop- 
ment, like a pharos, which in the darkness of 
night shows the way to the distant harbour, in- 
spire us with the cheering hope, that a similar 
development may take place in the spiritual 
world, and that the heavenly guest who animates 
our perishable clay, will rise higher in every stage 



THE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. 71 

of existence, and, drawing nearer to the ideal of 
perfection, will acquire more and more exalted 
intellectual power, the noblest of all enjoyments, 
that which is truly paradisiacal, and after having, 
in an ethereal form more suited to its mental 
development, traversed, perhaps, the boundless 
realms of the universe, and those planetary sys- 
tems which are the abode of beings more highly 
organized than we are, at length attain supreme 
bliss, — absorption into its Divine source. This is 
the belief of the Brahmin. 



72 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS OF THE 
HINDOOS. 



We must now cast a glance at the philosophical 
systems appertaining to the Brahmin religion, and 
of which several are considered orthodox. 

These systems may he divided into six different 
classes, under the following appellations :~ 

1. The elder Minansa, founded hy Jaimani. 

2. The younger Minansa, or Vedanta, composed 
hy Viasa. 

3. The logical school, called Niyaya, founded 
hy Gotama. 

4. The Atomic theory, established hy Canade. 

5. The Atheistic school, established hy Capila. 

6. The Theistic school, founded hy Pantanjali. 
The last two are rather Pantheistic systems 

than Atheistic or Theistic, and are called Sankia. 
They suppose that God and the world are the 
same ; that spirit and matter are one ; that God is 
all, and all is God, 



PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS OF THE HINDOOS. 73 

Justly to develope these systems* is beyond my 
abilities, as well as the limits of this treatise ; I 
therefore confine myself to give the main features 
of the most important of them. The Minansa 
system deserves particularly to be mentioned ; it 
is founded upon the Vedas, but possesses, more- 
over, rational grounds in its favour. 

God, says Viasa, is omniscient and omnipotent, 
the creator of all things, the preserver and de- 
stroyer ; creation is the work of his will. He is 
himself both the cause and origin of the world. 
When everything is at an end, all is resolved in 
him. He is the only subsisting and all-compre- 
hensive spirit. The souls of men are portions of 
his spirit, which proceed from him as sparks from 
a flame, and afterwards return to him again. The 
soul, as a portion of the Deity, is infinite, im- 
mortal, rational, sensible, and upright. It has 
also the power of action, although its natural state 
is rest (quietism). The operations of the soul are 
directed by God, in conformity with his own pre- 
determined decrees ; these, again, take place 

* Colebrooke's Essay on the Philosophy of the Hindoos gives 
the best account of these systems. 



74 THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS 

through a long train of causes, which extend back 
almost into infinity. 

The soul is enclosed in the body as in a shell, 
or, more correctly speaking, a series of shells. In 
the first is the memory, with the five senses. In 
the second comes reason ; in the third life and 
sensation. These three constitute the super- 
natural part of the body, and accompany the soul 
in all its transmigrations. The fourth shell is 
the visible body. The soul's relation to the body 
is as follows : — When man is awake, the soul acts 
and operates in the visible and actual world. In 
dreaming there is a figurative and imaginary 
creation. During deep sleep the spirit is enclosed, 
but not received into the spiritual being. At 
death it leaves the body, ascends on high, clothes 
itself in a watery veil, falls as rain to the earth, 
is imbibed by some plant, passes through it as 
nourishment, and forms a new being. * When it 
has finished its transmigration, the length of 
which is determined by its actions, it obtains its 
freedom. This freedom is of three kinds ; the first 

* Is not this in some measure in accordance with our latest 
discoveries in vegetable and animal chemistry, if we consider 
only the material part of man ? 



OF THE HINDOOS. 75 

perfect, when the soul resumes its union with 
Brahma ; the second, when it only approaches the 
habitation of Brahma ; and the third, much less 
perfect, when only in this life we receive some of 
the attributes of the Deity. 

The next of the philosophical systems of India, 
which deserves to be mentioned, if on no other 
account, for the number of its adherents, is the so- 
termed system of Maja, or that of Illusions. 

According to this system, there exists nothing 
else in reality but Bhrim, the great spirit ; there 
is neither land nor sea, neither man nor beast, 
neither tree nor house ; all is Maja, illusion, decep- 
tion. What we see, what we hear, what we 
know, is only a dream, a thinking in sleep, death 
nothing else but an awakening from this sleep, 
when the soul returns to its senses. 

Is not this view of the world rather the effusion 
of a mystic piety than that of philosophy ? Of a 
piety fixing its sight upon the littleness of created 
things, and the greatness of the Creator, with so 
much zeal as to pass over from a comparative 
mode of speech to one that is positive ? To dis- 
tinguish between mysticism and scepticism is often 
very difficult. 



76 THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS 

There is an episode in the celebrated poem, 
Mahab-harata, called Bhagavad-Gita, which cha- 
racterizes the Maja system. Two hostile armies 
stand opposite each other in battle-array ; the 
young leader of one army is wanting in resolution 
as the moment approaches when he is to fight 
against his relatives and friends, who are on the 
other side. One of its warriors holds the follow- 
ing discourse to encourage him to the combat : — 
" What dost thou fear ? Thou speakest of friends, of 
relatives, of men ! But know that men, beasts, and 
stones are all one. What is man to-day may be 
an animal to-morrow — perhaps grass the day fol- 
lowing. The principle is eternal ; nothing else. 
Thou art a Khetry ; thy caste is that of war ; do 
thy duty. The battle costs a thousand lives. Well, 
does not the sun shine as brightly the day after ? 
All is deception (maja), all is illusion ; nothing 
exists of that which thou thinkest thou seest. Be 
unmoved within, and think of nothing but the 
great original principle, which alone exists." 

The philosophers of India generally assume 
the human nature to be threefold (Tricotomia), con- 
sisting not only of body and soul, but of body, soul 
(4>phv)> and spirit (Ov/ulos). 



OF THE HINDOOS. 77 

Pythagoras and Plato hold the same doctrine ; 
that of Pythagoras being probably derived from 
India, whither he travelled to complete his philo- 
sophical studies. Our sacred Scriptures have an 
expression to the same purport (1 Thes. v. 23) : 
" The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, that 
your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved 
blameless/' &c. 

The Indian philosophers regard, as we have al- 
ready stated, the soul ($>phv) as an emanation or 
spark of the Divine essence itself, given to man, by 
means of which he received the power of raising 
his thoughts to those high etherial regions to 
which the beast cannot elevate itself, and by means 
of which he possesses the power of expressing them 
in speech, and thus of communicating them to his 
equals. On the other hand, they regarded the 
mind (OvjuLoi) as forming a constituent part, 
which also appertains to animals, although not in 
the same degree of perfection ;* they believed 
that the mind leaves the body at death ; but that 

* Cuvier assumes, that animals have instinct and understand- 
ing (intelligence), between which attributes he draws a definite 
boundary. The former only has respect to the satisfying of 
the natural wants or the propagation of the species, and is 
equally marked in the animals of a lower as well as in those of 



78 THE PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEMS 

in the form of a shadow (umbra) it is able to re- 
main upon earth, hovering around those whom it 
had loved, and capable of warning and protecting 
them. 

This doctrine is somewhat more consolatory than 
that of pantheism, according to which the soul's 
individual existence is resolved into the vast uni- 
verse of the all-pervading spirit ; but is infinitely 

a higher organization. Among the more perfect animals, such 
as monkeys, beasts of prey, ruminating animals, &c, there are 
evident indications of intelligence ; it is instinct that impels the 
beaver and the bee to build, the bird to migrate, the new-born 
child to feel for the mother's breast ; but it is intelligence that 
teaches the wolf and the fox to avoid snares, and the domestic 
animal to distinguish between its fosterer and other persons. Those 
faculties in animals, which depend on instinct, cannot be changed 
or cultivated ; those which depend upon the intelligence may be 
improved, not only in the individual but also in the species. Be- 
tween the animal and human intelligence Cuvier places con- 
sciousness as a limit ; the animal can think, know, remember ; 
but cannot know that it thinks, &c. 

But intelligence cannot be found without mind, cannot be the 
attribute of matter. Cuvier distinguishes between tamed ani- 
mals (apprivoise's) and domestic animals (domestiques). Both 
these kinds require intelligence ; for taming must be effected by a 
succession of experiences in the animal, both of the superiority 
of the man, and of his kindness towards it. Only those animals 
can become domestic, which, like man, have the instinct to live 
in society, under the direction of the strongest or oldest. Cuvier 
supposes that domestic animals merely see in man a leader of 
the herd. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 79 

inferior to that soothing doctrine, agreeably to 
which man reposes in the bosom of his Divine 
Creator, as a child in the arms of his mother, in 
order that he may awake the day after surrounded 
by all he holds most dear. 

We might he able to resign ourselves with pa- 
tient submission to the comfortless doctrine of 
Pantheism, if it only concerned ourselves ; but, 
together with the hope of our own continued exist- 
ence, to lose at the same time that of seeing again 
those whom we have most loved upon earth, to 
break with them for ever, is a reflection that bruises 
the heart. What ! shall we first be bereaved of 
these beloved ones, retain nothing of them but me- 
mory's faint shadow, and then, when we are called to 
follow them, shall even this shadow^/ away from 
us ? No ; such can never be the intention of the 
All-bountiful Creator ; he has not deposited in our 
hearts the tender feelings of love and of friendship, 
in order at life's goal to rend asunder for ever 
the band that has been tied by them ! They are 
of a spiritual nature ; they follow the spirit be- 
yond the boundary of life, where we shall find 
again those we have loved. 



80 



THE EPIC POETRY OF THE HINDOOS, AS A 
PART OF THEIR RELIGION. 



Poetry rules over all in India ; it has lent its 
forms, its colouring, and its charms even to the 
most ahstract sciences, yea, even to religion, which 
has not been a gainer thereby. 

The sacred poems of the Hindoos celebrate 
Brahma, Vishnou, Siva, Brahmanda, Linga, 
Indra, Vamana, Skandi, Agni, and the rest of 
their deities ; but they more especially celebrate 
Rama and Krischna as the avatars or incarnations 
of Vishnou, the second person of the Deity. 

Of the epic poems regarded as sacred, the Ra- 
majana and Mahab-harata are the most remark- 
able. 

The former of these poems celebrates Rama's 
expedition to the southern parts of India, together 
with the taking of the island of Ceylon, then called 
Lanka. Rama was a royal prince of Oude, whose 



AS A PART OF THEIR RELIGION. 81 

beautiful consort (Sita) was carried off (like the 
Grecian Helen) by Ravenna, a giant, and king of 
Deccan. Hanuman, half a man and half a mon- 
key, the leader of an army of the same species 
(probably Mongolians, or natives of Thibet, whose 
singular features together with their dress, which 
was of skins, may have given occasion to this com- 
parison), is more particularly the hero in this 
piece who contributes to Rama's victories over 
Ravenna. The name of the poet is Valmiki ; the 
age of the poem nearly the same as that of the 
Vedanta, 2000 years before Christ. 

In the introduction to this poem Brahma utters 
the following prophetic words : — " So long as the 
mountains stand, and the rivers flow, Ramayana 
shall live among men." The experience of nearly 
forty centuries seems to confirm the words of the 
seer. 

The other epic poem, the Mahab-harata, cele- 
brates Krischna's expedition against the tyrant 
Ravenna, who with his giants stormed the kingdom 
of the God Indra, called Swerga.* This myth is 
probably the foundation of the ancient Greek 

* See Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, p. 123, of the 
ninth Edition. 



82 THE EPIC POETRY OF THE HINDOOS, 

tradition of the attempt of the Titans to storm 
heaven. 

Among other remarkable particulars in this 
Poem, is the pure light in which it sets the noble 
character and high-minded devotion of the women 
of India, and it shows that we have no correct 
notion of their state, at least not in ancient times. 
High religious sentiments and a pure morality pre- 
vailed then in the East ; but this part of the world, 
like the rest, has had its golden age and its 
decline. To judge of it from the latter, would be 
as unjust as to judge the Romish nation during the 
Republic, to be what it became under the domi- 
nion of the popes. 

Menu's laws say : t Wives must be esteemed 
and honoured by their fathers, brothers, husbands, 
and fathers-in-law, if the latter wish to be happy. 
The gods rejoice when the wife is honoured ; 
where this is not the case, the sacrifices are un- 
profitable. When the wife is injured, the whole 
family decays ; when the contrary is the case, it 
always flourishes." 

In the Mahab-harata King Duschmanta utters 
the following beautiful words : — "The wife is the 
honour of the family ; she who presents the chil- 



AS A PART OF THEIR RELIGION. 83 

dren. The wife is the man's vital spirit, is the 
man's half, is his best friend, and the source of all 
his felicity. The wife, with her endearing dis- 
course, is the friend in solitude, the mother to the 
oppressed, and a refreshment on the journey in 
the wilderness of life." — See Digest of Hindu law, 
translated by Colebrooke, 3rd book, s. 55. 

Such exalted ideas of the sanctity of marriage, 
and of the mutual duties of man and wife, must 
have excluded polygamy ; and it appears from 
several passages in the laws of Menu, that they 
prescribe only one wife. The fear of dying without 
offspring may have been the cause of polygamy ; 
for, according to the ideas of the Brahmins, it is 
the greatest of all misfortunes to depart from 
this world without having any descendant, who 
by virtue and pious conduct can obtain for his 
parents Nirvani ; that is to say, eternal happiness. 

In the Ramayana, paradise is promised to those 
who marry only one wife, and the Hindoo mytho- 
logy gives no more than one to each god. 

The heroic poems of India do not exhibit 
the glowing imagination of the Persic and 
Arabic productions; but they possess the simple 
and noble poesy of the Grecian bard. In 

g2 



84 THE EPIC POETRY OF THE HINDOOS, 

richness of imagery the Hindoo poetry may 
vie with that of the Greeks, as the following in- 
stance may serve to show : the god of love is called 
Kama in the Hindoo mythology ; he is represented 
as heing born oiMakia, seduction, married to Hetty, 
desire, and the friend of Vassaul, spring. He is 
a beautiful but roguish youth, furnished with 
arrows and a bow of flowers, surrounded by danc- 
ing nymphs, and sitting, in the moon's chaste 
brightness, on a chattering parrot. Is not this re- 
presentation as poetic and as striking as that of 
the Greeks ? Neither of them, indeed, represent 
that pure self-denying love which lives in its own 
spirit, offers up all, and desires nothing of its 
object? but this feeling, so rare even in the cold 
north, how can it be expected under the burning 
sky of India, in the country where the Bayadere 
is a priestess ! No, Platonic love must not be 
sought there. 

The Ramayana and Mahab-harata are not 
the only poems of great celebrity in India ; the 
Ragtin-vansa, and others, are scarcely less famous, 
as also the Hitopadesa,* a collection of fables in 
prose. 

* Translated by A. W. Schlegel and Lassen. 



AS A PART OF THEIR RELIGION. 85 

With respect to the dramatic literature of the 
Hindoos, it first became known in Europe from. a 
translation by Sir William Jones of one of its 
master- pieces, called Sacontala ; and also by the 
six dramas subsequently translated by Wilson 
(printed in Calcutta in 1827, in three vols. 8vo). 
The Sacontala is remarkable both for the beauty 
of its poetry and for its correct delineation of 
manners ; the author was Kalidas, one of the nine 
jewels at the court of Vacramadita, contempo- 
rary of Augustus Caesar. 

The Thousand and one Nights, so universally 
known in Europe, is a Hindoo original, translated 
into Persic, and thence into other languages. In 
Sanscrit the name is Vrihatkat'ha* 

The literature of India was not studied in 
Europe before the year 1780, when Sir William 
Jones prepared the way ; and although our pro- 
gress since has been but small, we can say that it 
makes us acquainted with a great nation of past 
ages, which grasped every branch of knowledge, 
and will always occupy a distinguished place in 
the history of the cultivation of mankind. 

* See A. W. Schlegel's work, Etude des Langnes Asia- 
tiques. 



86 



BUDDHISM. 



The most remarkable feature of Buddhism is, not 
only that it is professed by the greatest portion 
of the human family, but that it has also extended 
its doctrines among most of the other religious 
systems. It is called Godamas (Goutama's) doc- 
trine in Assam, Pegu, Ava, and Ceylon ; Samanas 
doctrine in Siam ; Amida- Buddha's in Japan ; Fos 
or Fohis in China and Cochin- China ; Sakiasin- 
kas in eastern Bengal and Nepaul ; Dherma- 
Ray as in Bootan ; A-di-Buddhcts in great Thibet ; 
Maha-moonies * in lesser Thibet ; and Sakiamu- 
nds in Mongolia and Mantschouri. The total 
amount of the professors of Buddhism cannot be 
estimated at less than 380 millions. On adding 
to these 380 millions of Buddhists, the 150 mil- 
lions of Brahmins in India, we find that more than 
half of the human race (calculated in round 

* Maha-moonie, in Sanscrit, signifies the great saint. 



BUDDHISM. 87 

numbers at 1000 millions)* profess these two 
branches of the same fundamental religion. 

Buddhism was founded not by one, but by several 
Buddhas, who appeared in India and the neigh- 
bouring countries during nine centuries before 
Christ, and received from its adherents the name 
of Buddha, which signifies divine man or holy 
man. 

The Brahmins consider the first of these 
Buddhas (Sakia) to have been an Avatar of 
Vishnou ; a fallen Avatar, who preached false 
doctrines. 

The various founders of Buddhism, although 
differing in their religious principles, agree in the 
following points : — 

1. In acknowledging the Brahmin doctrine as 
the foundation of their own. 

2. In admitting, in conjunction with this doc- 

* If the population of the earth be taken at 1,000,000,000, we 
shall find, from authentic statements, that there are of 

Christians 230,000,000 

Jews 10,000,000 

Mahometans ........ 160,000,000 

Buddhists 380,000,000 

Brahmins. 150,000,000 

Pagans in Africa and America, &c. . 70,000,000 

1,000,000,000 



88 BUDDHISM. 

trine, a divine triad, which combines the principle 
of the trinity with that of the unity, although 
frequently under other names than those of the 
trimurti of the Brahmins. 

3. In acknowledging the doctrine of the trans- 
migration of the soul. 

4. In regarding the soul as an emanation of the 
Divine Being, which, after having accomplished 
its transmigration, returns to its high origin. 

Buddhism differs from Brahmaism in the 
following particulars : — 

1. It does not acknowledge the Vedas as a 
revelation from Brahma, but only regards them 
as a highly deserving human composition, con- 
taining great but not revealed truths. 

2. It does not recognize the division of castes, 
as does the Brahmin doctrine.* 

3. It considers the inferior gods and demi-gods 
of the Brahmin religion merely as holy men 
sent by the Almighty for the benefit of the human 
race. 

These Buddhas, therefore, were (like Luther, 
Calvin, and Huss) Reformers of religion. 

* There are exceptions with regard to this point, as in 
the island of Ceylon. 



BUDDHISM. 89 

The Metaphysics of the Buddhists are dis- 
tinguished from those of the Brahmins, in that 
the God of the latter pervades and animates the 
whole of nature, whilst the God of the Buddhists, 
like that of the Epicureans, reposes in a perfect 
quietism, and does not concern himself about 
human affairs, which, when they have once re- 
ceived their impulse, go on in an even course, 
without his interference. The God of the Budd- 
hists does not estimate the value of human 
actions, and neither rewards nor punishes them ! 
The Buddhists, however, consider what is good 
to be derived from virtue, what is evil from vice, 
and to bring with them temporal rewards, or 
temporal punishments. As nevertheless the 
human mind must have an object on which it can 
place its hopes, and to which it may address 
its prayers, they teach that men of extraordi- 
nary piety and self-denial, have from time to 
time appeared upon earth, and in consequence of 
their distinguished worth, have, after death, been 
removed to a state of greater happiness, which, 
however, is but an absence of all sorrow, or suffer- 
ing, as health is but the absence of all sickness. 
These persons, removed at death to bliss, are the 



90 BUDDHISM. 

Buddhas, who, next to the Divine triads, con- 
stitute the object of their worship. 

The Buddhists of Ceylon say, that the number 
of Buddhas is now twenty-two, and that several 
others are expected on earth, # 

According to other Buddhist sects, it is the same 
Buddha, who at different times, in various coun- 
tries, and under different human forms, has come 
upon earth, always as a saviour and redeemer of 
the sinful human race. 

Some Buddhist sects believe that Buddha 
returns to the earth every thousand years, and 
they regard those colossal figures cut out of the 
mountains, in the neighbourhood of Bamean 
(Hindu Kosch), and in the vale of the upper 
Indus, as representing some coming Buddha. 

The most celebrated Buddhas are, Sakia ,"\ 
Godama, and Fo (Fud'h-Budd'h). Sakia was born 
to the east of the Ganges, on the confines of Ne- 
p aid, in a town called Kapita-Vastu ;J Godama 

* See Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus. 

j" There are two Sakia Buddhas, the one called Sakia-Muni, 
the other Sakia- Sinha. 

j See Wilson's Treatise in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
Society, for the year 1839, 123-160. 



BUDDHISM. 91 

was born in Siam ;* Fo was born in the west of 
India, but the place is unknown. 

With regard to the time when these Buddhas 
lived, the accounts differ very much. The chroni- 
cle of Cashmere says, that it was 1300 years B.C., 
when the first Buddha lived. The chronicles of 
the Chinese, Mongolians, and Japanese, assert that 
it was 1000 years, the Burmese (Ava and Siam), 
and the Cingalese, that it was 600 years, and that 
of Thibet, which appear to be the most certain, f 
that it was 400 years before Christ. But as these 
chronological computations have respect to differ- 
ent Buddhas, they may all be more or less correct. 

It appears that the best guide is to consider the 
eldest Buddha, the Reformer of the Brahmin 
division of caste, as being younger than Menus 
Codex, since the latter in fact established the 
division of caste as a laiv (though it might be 
older as a custom) ; and as this codex, as I have 
already shown, is 900 years prior to our compu- 

* The Buddhist scriptures of Ceylon say that Godama was 
born in that island 623 years B.C., and declared to be Buddha 
at the age of 35 years, viz. the year 588 B.C. 

t Asoca held a great Buddhist church-council in Thibet, 110 
years after Sakids death, which, according to authentic data, 
took place 300 years before the birth of Christ. 



92 BUDDHISM. 

tation, the most ancient or first Buddha must 
consequently have been subsequent to this pe- 
riod. Sakia-Sinha seems to have been the eldest 
Buddha. 

The legend of Godama Buddha is as follows :* — 
/A virgin, inspired by heaven, wandered into the 
wilderness, became pregnant there by a sun-beam, 
and, although a maid, brought forth a son. Being 
unable to give suck, a Lotus flower came to her 
floating upon the water, opened itself, received 
the tender child, and suckled it. The mother, ab- 
sorbed in meditation, was conducted by angels to 
heaven. A holy hermit took the child from the 
bosom of the flower,! an( i fled- w ^h it to Camboya, 
where it obtained the name of Godama. At 
twelve years of age Godama performed miracles, 
returned to Siam, preached the new doctrine, and 
was called or regarded as a Buddha. Godama 
is the Buddha worshipped in Ceylon, where he 
has left the mark of his foot on a rock (called 
Pik Adam), which now bears a temple dedicated 
to him. J 

* See the Jesuit Missionary Tachard's account of Ava, Pegu, 
and Siam. 

■f Nymphsea Lotos, on this account sacred in India. 

J These footsteps are called Phrabat, and are regarded by 



BUDDHISM. 93 

Fo (Fud'h-Budd'h), who founded Buddhism in 
China, whence it spread to Cochin-China, Tar- 
tary, Corea, and Japan, is the youngest of these 
Buddhas, and came to China under the reign of 
Ming-ty, of the Ham dynasty, about the time of 
the birth of Christ. 

That Buddhism continued more than 1000 
years in the west of the Indian Peninsula, where 
also it took its rise, has lately been proved by 
a Chinese book of travels, translated by Re- 
musat, and commented upon by Klaproth and 
Wilson* 

The traveller, whose name was Fo-Hian, born 
in the year 399 of our computation, during the 
reign of Yao-Hong, was a Buddhist monk, who 
travelled at about forty years of age, for the pur- 
pose of visiting those places in India, which are 
considered sacred by that religion ; consequently 
he travelled about the year 440. In his time 

the Buddhists in the same sense as the rainbow in the religions 
grounded on the Mosaic records, namely, as an assurance that 
the deluge will not return. Six such Phrabat are found in the 
East, one of them, singularly enough, in Mecca, whither the 
Buddhists made pilgrimages, long before the rise of Islamism 
in that part. 

* See the Transactions of the Asiatic Society for the year 
1839. 



94 BUDDHISM. 

Buddhism still flourished in many parts of India, 
and extended from the Indus to the Nerbudda, 
but mostly to the east of the Ganges. The per- 
secutions of the Brahmins against the Buddhists 
had commenced many centuries before, but now 
increased more and more, until the Brahmin 
Kumarilla Bhata succeeded, by means of a general 
warfare against the apostate sects, in driving them 
entirely from Hindostan. This took place in the 
sixth century after Christ, and it is particularly 
at this period that Buddhism spread over the 
world, where however it had long before taken 
deep root under different denominations. 

That the true seat of Buddhism in ancient 
times, was Hindostan, is attested by the temples 
of Ellora, Elephanta and Adjunta, of which the 
greater part were dedicated to Buddha, and also 
by the most authentic Hindoo records. 

The Buddhists are divided into two main 
branches, each of which has its subdivisions ; 
the first is based on theistic, the second on atheistic 
principles, or, more correctly speaking on pan- 
theistic principles. 

The scriptures of the theistic branch, are in 
general written in Sanscrit. Those of the pan- 



BUDDHISM. 95 

theistic are in the Pali language, but probably 
translated from the Sanscrit, in the fourth century 
of our era. The last-named branch has extended 
to Thibet, China, Tartary, Ceylon, and in the 
Indian peninsula to the east of the Ganges, and 
has about three hundred and fifty million pro- 
fessors. The other branch (the theistic) has its 
seat in Nepaul, Java, and some of the islands 
of the Indian archipelago. Its professors are few 
in number compared with those of the pantheistic 
branch. 

Buddhism, to characterize it in a few words, is 
a monastic asceticism in morals, and a philo- 
sophical scepticism in religion. It divides itself 
into a multitude of systems, changing in dif- 
ferent modes the Brahmaism which is the foun- 
dation of all of them ; thus, in one of its systems 
called Sangata (which flourishes in Nepaul), it 
transforms the Brahmin Trimurti, from the names 
of Brahma, Vishnou, and Siva, into those of A-di- 
Buddha, Dharma (the feminine), and Sangha, 
but maintains the same attributes of Creator, pre- 
server and destroyer ; and the same symbolic cha- 
racter, of procreation, conception, and production, 
though it perplexes, by the change of names, the 



96 BUDDHISM. 

original Brahmin Trimurti. The Sanghata system 
gives its triad the following exposition : — 

1. A-di-Buddha. 2. Dharma. 3. Sangha. 

1. Sangha. 2. A-di-Buddha. 3. Dharma. 

1. A-di-Buddha. 2. Dharma, 3. Sangha. 

A-di-Buddha is the creator ; Dharma the pro- 
genitrix ; and Sangha the production. 

The system of Joinville and some other Ori- 
entalists, which makes Buddhism more ancient 
than Brahmaism is entirely groundless, and con- 
futed by the best Hindoo, as well as by the best 
European authorities.* Buddhism has as- 
sumed different forms in every country, like 
the reformed doctrines of Christianity. Thus, 
for instance, in Thibet, it has obtained a dis- 
tinct character, by means of its spiritual head, 



* William von Humboldt expresses himself in the following 
manner (see his remarkable work " ilber die Kawi Sprache" 
vol. i. p. 290) : — " Dass der Buddhismus in Indien selbst, in 
dem mittleren, an den Ufern des Ganges gelegenen L'andern 
entstanden ist, und dass er sich erst von dem Brahmanismus, 
in der inneren Lehre durch die Yerwerfung der Yeda's, in 
der ausseren durch die der Kasteneintheilung, trennte, ist nach 
dem hentigen Stande dieser Forschungen langer keinem Zweifel 
unterworfen. Sowohl die Annahme eines Vor-Brahmanischen, 
als eines urspriinglich Ausser-Indischen Buddhismus bedarf keiner 
Widerlegung mehr." 



BUDDHISM. 97 

Dalay-Lama, found there, and who is considered 
to he immortal, so far as the spirit of the one Dalay- 
Lama shall successively pass over to the next.* 

The hest accounts we possess of the nature of 
Buddhism in Thibet, are hy Turner, Bogle, the 
Russian Archimandrite Hyacinthe Bitschourin, 
who translated a Chinese work on this subject; 
and hy Schmidt, in the transactions of the Aca- 
demy of St. Petersburg. 

Bogle and Turner were envoys to Thibet, and 
personally known, the former to Dalay-Lama in 
H'Lassa, and the latter to the Lama in Teschoo.f 

* Turner's work contains an official letter from the then existing 
Dalay-Lama to the Governor-General Hastings, in the East 
Indies, in which Dalay-Lama describes his predilection for 
Bengal, on account of his having been born there twice, during 
his former abodes upon earth, which had not happened to him in 
any other land ; he therefore sends a considerable sum of money 
for the purpose of building a temple on the shores of the 
Ganges. 

\ Dalay-Lama resides in H'Lassa, which is for the Budd- 
hists what Rome is for Catholics. The Lama succession takes 
place in the following manner : every Dalay-Lama leaves 
behind him a sealed testament, in which his successor (namely, 
the person into whom his spirit purposes to pass over) is desig- 
nated, not by name, but by a description of his family (always 
another than that of Dalay-Lama himself), appearance, age, 
(most frequently that of a child), and the place where he is to 
be found. On Dalay-Lama's decease (transmigration), the tes- 
tament is opened by the Kuthuktus {Cardinals) assembled in 
solemn council. The person designated is sought for and pro- 

H 



98 BUDDHISM. 

In a conversation with Bogle, Dalay-Lama 
stated that Brahma, Vishnou, and Siva, were 
worshipped by the inhabitants of Thibet, but that 
the lesser gods of India were not otherwise re- 
garded by them than as holy men (Buddhism) ; 
that the people of Thibet, from 700 to 800 
years back, possessed many temples in India, 
but that the Brahmins had destroyed them ; that 
India was the real native seat of their gods 
and their doctrines ; and he therefore begged the 
English envoy to obtain permission from the 
Governor-General that they might again erect 
temples on the shores of the Ganges. 

The statements of the Archimandrite Hyacinthe 
also demonstrate that the religion of Dalay-Lama 
is pure Buddhism ; and that this religion, if we 
except some Tartaric tribes who have gone over 
to Mahometanism, universally prevails in the 
high land of Central Asia.* 

claimed Dalay-Lama, to whom the people of Thibet take the 
oath of homage and allegiance. 

Banshin Rimbotsai Lama is the second spiritual head of the 
Buddhists, who resides in Djachi Lumbo, a great monastery not 
far from IFLassa. This Lama regenerates himself after the 
same manner as Dalay-Lama, and is commonly guardian to 
Dalay-Dama, when the latter is a minor, as Dalay-Lama is for 
the Lama in Lumbo when the latter is a minor. 

* This question is fully discussed by Schmidt in the above- 
named transactions. 



BUDDHISM. 99 

The Buddhists in Thibet, as well as in China, 
Mongolia, and Corea, have convents like those of 
the Catholics, the spiritual fathers of which are 
dressed like Franciscan monks, and make a vow 
of celibacy. They use tonsure, wear the rosary, 
sprinkle holy water, and celebrate masses with 
solemn church music. These resemblances as- 
tonished the Jesuit missionaries so much, that one 
of them, father Gerbillon, supposed that Buddhism 
was derived from Nest onanism (an anachronism 
of at least 500 years) ; another father, Gremare, 
imagined, on the contrary, that Satan himself had 
caused this resemblance^ 

This resemblance is also recognized by more 
recent authors ; by Homeman, in his comparison 
between the Oriental doctrines and the sacred 
Scriptures ; by Munthe in his Church History ; by 
Gatterer, Richter, and others. 

The most remarkable feature of Buddhism is, 
that it is professed by the greatest fraction of the 
human race, and that it has propagated its doc- 
trines among the religious systems of most other 
nations. 

The close affinity of the Egyptian religion with 
Brahmaism has already been pointed out; but 

h 2 



100 BUDDHISM. 

Buddhism also has penetrated to the banks of the 
Nile, of which we have many proofs. 

Buddhism, as a younger doctrine, must however 
have come later into Egypt, and probably not 
before the dynasty of the Ptolemies. 

The so-called Hermes scriptures (the name of 
all sacred writings of the Egyptians) contain 
metaphysical treatises in the form of dialogue, 
between Hermes (spiritual wisdom) and Thodh, 
Bodh, Buddh (earthly wisdom), which throughout 
exhibit the doctrines of Buddhism ; they speak 
of the pre-existence of the soul, of its transmigra- 
tions upon earth (metempsychosis), of its ema- 
nation from the Divine Being, and of its final 
return to its high original.* 

There is another early Egyptian writing, which 
in the translation is called Pimanders Hermes 
Trismegistus, and forms a dialogue between 
Pimander (the highest intelligence) and Thodt, 
(Bodh, Buddh), which developes the metaphysics 
of the Buddhists touching the Trinity. 

We have seen how Buddhism has spread first 

* The Hermes scriptures, although they are considered of 
great antiquity, are probably not earlier than the third century 
before the Christian era. 



BUDDHISM. 101 

over the two peninsulas of India, and afterwards 
proceeded to Ethiopia, Egypt, China, Corea, 
Thibet : it penetrated to Chaldea, Phenicia, Pales- 
tine, Colchis,* Greece, Rome, Gaul, and Britain. 
The Samaritans in Aram were Buddhists,t as 
also the Essenes in Palestine, at least as to their 
private doctrine, for outwardly they followed the 
Mosaic law, and subsequently the precepts of 
Christianity. The Essenes were divided into 
contemplative and practical. The contemplative 
dwelt in the mountainous regions about Nazareth, 
and on the shores of the Dead Sea. The practical 
lived in towns. J Both of them afterwards joined 
the Gnostics of Palestine and Chaldea. § 

The Gnostics were also divided into two main 
sects, each of which had its subdivisions ; the one 
sect, which flourished in Meroe in Ethiopia, was 
called the Egyptian, the other the Asiatic ; the 
adherents of the latter were in fact Buddhists, 
who in a great measure adopted the external 

* See Lindner's Skythien nach Herodot. 

f See J. Von Muller's Weltgeschichte. 

% See Hieronymus and Clemens of Alexandria ; also Mosheim, 
J. von Muller, Lib. IX. ; and Gibbon, Lib. XV. and XVI. 

§ See Schmidt, Verwandtschaft der Gnostiseh. Theosophischen, 
Lehren mit dem Buddhismus. 



102 BUDDHISM. 

forms of Christianity, because they regarded Jesus 
as a Buddha who had appeared on earth, in 
accordance with their own tenets. The Egyptian 
Gnostics, on the contrary, although they also were 
Christians in name, made a metaphysical distinc- 
tion between Jesus and Christ, regarding the 
former as a mere man, but the latter as the 
Holy Spirit, who was incarnated in the man 
Jesus, and who after his death would return to 
his high original. These are the doctrines which 
were cherished by the Gnostics during the first 
and second centuries of our era, but afterwards 
they fell into still worse heresies. Simon Magus 
belonged to the Egyptian Gnostics.* 

The Graeco-Roman Olympus appears to be least 
of all allied to that of the Hindoos, though re- 
semblances are found between them, which are 
pushed too far by Sir William Jones. 

The Ganisa of the Hindoos may have been the 
type of the Roman Janus. f They are both repre- 
sented with two faces, which behold the past and 
the future, and the name Janus may be derived 

* See Origen (adv. Celsum) ; Mosheim (Eccles. Hist.), and 
Irenseus and Epiphanius. 

t Janus pater,— Janus tuens, divus biceps, biformis. — Ovidius. 



BUDDHISM. 103 

from that of Ganisa. Surya, the Hindoo god of 
light, may have heen the pattern of the Grecian 
Apollo ; they are both represented with a lyre in 
the hand, and in a chariot drawn by four white 
horses. Bacchus and Hercules may also find 
their types in the Hindoo Olympus; but the 
spirit of the Greek religion is different from that 
of the Hindoos, and this is of more importance. 

To the remote Japan, Buddhism has also ex- 
tended its wide-spreading arms. A king in Corea 
so eloquently developed the saving influence of 
this doctrine to a Mikado, # who reigned at the 
same time, that the latter, captivated thereby, 
permitted it to* be introduced into Japan. It has 
since extended to such a degree, that it now has 
more adherents in Japan than the established re- 
ligion itself, which is denominated Sinsyn, or the 
Sintoo doctrine. + The higher classes, however, 

* Mikado is the spiritual head of Japan, whose dynasty now 
numbers twenty-four centuries. The temporal chief bears the 
name of Ziogoon ; the power is however in the hands of a self- 
elective senate or council of ministers (see Siebold, Fischer, &c). 

•f The Sintoo religion has this peculiarity, that in the first 
place it worships a goddess who is called Ten-sio dai-zin, 
daughter of the sun, and ancestress of Mikado. Can it be from 
this cause that the image worshipped in the temple is a mirror ? 



104 BUDDHISM. 

are followers of a philosophy founded upon the 
doctrine of Koong-fu-tse in China. 

Even the Druids in ancient Britain were 
Buddhists;* they adopted the metempsychosis,f 
the pre-existence of the soul, and its return to the 
realms of universal space. They had a divine 
triad, consisting of a creator, preserver, and de- 
stroyer, as with the Buddhists. The Druids con- 
stituted a sacerdotal order, which reserved to 
itself alone the interpretation of the mysteries of 
religion. Their wisdom was so celebrated that 
Lucan expresses himself in the following terms 
in his poem called Britain : — " If ever the know- 
ledge of the gods has come down to earth, it is 
to the Druids of Britain." The Druids propagated 
their doctrines in Gaul during the time of Caesar, 
whence they penetrated in the west to the Celtic 
tribes in Spain, and in the east to Germany, and 
the Cimbrian peninsula. The ban Qheacht)^ of 

* See the remarkable work of Godfrey Higgins, entitled, ' The 
Celtic Druids, or an attempt to show that the Druids were the 
Priests of Oriental Colonies, who emigrated from India.' 
London, 1824. 

t Vide Caesar, Lib. VI. ; and Pliny, Lib. XXII. 

\ The German word, Acht, is probably derived from this 
word. 



BUDDHISM. 105 

the Druids was equally terrible with that of the 
Brahmins; even the king against whom it was 
fulminated " fell, " to use the expression of the 
Druids, " like grass before the scythe." 

The Druids of Britain received their doctrine 
from the Phoenicians, and through the traffic which 
this enterprizing people had established with 
Ireland and the British island.* 

The spread of Buddhism to the above-mentioned 
parts of the world was for the most part anterior 
to Christianity ; simultaneous with the establish- 
ment of this creed, Buddhism penetrates so far as 
to the Altai mountains in Asia, and the Scandi- 
navian Peninsula in Europe. 

It came to this part of the world by means of a 
warrior named Sigge Fridulfson, surnamed Odin 
(in the ancient Scandinavian dialect TVhodin ; 
in is the article which, added to Whod, Bhodd, 
Buddh, makes Whodin — Odin), chief of an Asiatic 
tribe called Asar.t 

This Odin introduced a religious creed in Scan- 

* Vide Strabo on the Cassiterides islands, 
t It seems to be the same tribe which came by sea to 
Etruria. 



106 BUDDHISM. 

dinavia, founded on Asiatic Buddhism, but 
strangely corrupted. 

Many centuries after Odin, this creed was codi- 
ciledby the Icelander Snorre Sturelson* who, by a 
singular coincidence, which cannot be accidental, 
gave the name of Edda to this codicil, so very like 
the name of the Indian holy scripture, the Veda. 

The immense space of time which elapsed be- 
tween the composition of the Vedas (2500 years 
B.C.), and the Edda (1200 years a. d.), must neces- 
sarily have changed their contents. It was natural 
that the names of the gods should be adapted to 
the nature of the languages, and the metaphors 
to the difference of climates ; but the ground- 
work is the same, and they both acknowledge one 
Almighty Creator, and the immortality of the soul. 
In the Vedas, the angel asks : — " Who has created 
the world?" " Bhrim, the Father of all," is the 
reply. In the Edda, Gangler asks : — " Who is 
the first among the gods? " " The Father of all '," 
is the reply. 

* Snorre Sturelson was born in Hram, in the year 1178, 
a=d. The prosaic Edda is still more recent, and dated from 
the thirteenth century. 



BUDDHISM. 107 

i 

"Where is god?" asks Gangler, in the Edda, 
" and what has he performed?" " He lives ever- 
more" answers Har; " governs his kingdom, and 
rules over all things, great and small." 

Such also is the reply to the angel in the 
Veda. 

Jafnhar adds, — "God has created the heaven, the 
earth, and all that is in them ; he formed man, 
and gave him a spirit, which shall live and never 
pass away, even though the body becomes dust, or 
be burnt to ashes'' 

But could a people so uncultivated as the Scan- 
dinavians were at the time of Odin have attained 
such a degree of metaphysical intelligence, unless 
it had obtained it from a nation further advanced 
upon the path of civilization ? 

Gangler inquires in the Edda : — r How came the 
world into existence ? What was there before it ? " 
Har answers— (in the Wbluspa) : (c It was the be- 
ginning of time, when there was nothing; no sand, 
no sea, no cool waves. The earth was not, nor 
the heavens above ; there was a yawning gulf, 
but no grass." 

All these questions are so exceedingly similar 
to those which the angels make to Brahma, and 



108 BUDDHISM. 

the answers similar to those of Brahma in the 
Vedas, that we can scarcely question the deriva- 
tion of the Edda from the Vedas. 

The Brahmins (as well as the Buddhists) admit 
three persons in their deity, — Brahma, the Creator; 
Vishnou, the Preserver ; and Siva, the Destroyer ; 
j ust so did the Scandinavians. Allfader (Father of 
all) was the Creator, Fjolner the Preserver, and 
Svidrir the Destroyer* 

A common symbol of the Creator among the 
Hindoos (from whom it passed into Egypt) was 
the scarabaeus or beetle. In Scandinavia, like- 
wise, this insignificant insect was sacred, and bore 
the name of the god T/ior, Thor-bagge, or Thor- 
dyfvel. The superstition yet remains among the 
people of several provinces in Sweden,f that who- 
ever finds this insect on its back unable to help 
itself, and turns it on its feet again, atones for his 

* The Trinity appears in the Scandinavian mythology under 
six different forms (vide Finn Magnusens Eddalara). In the 
younger Edda, it appears under the names Odin, Vile, and Ve ; 
in the prose Edda, under the names Odin (the supreme), 
Jafnhar (the equally high), and Tridi (the third) ; in Gylfes 
Ginnung, under the names of Odin, Thor, and Balder, — even 
under those of Oden, Freya, and Balder. In Oden's myth it is 
connected with the Unity, as in the doctrine of the Brahmins. 

f Vide Afzelii folksagor. 



BUDDHISM. 109 

sins, because Thor (like Vishnou) was the propi- 
tiator with Allfader (Brahma). 

In an etymological point of view there are also 
some remarkable resemblances between the Hin- 
doo and the Scandinavian mythology. Love is 
Kcirlek in Swedish ; the god of love bears the 
name of Karlekeya in Bengal. The abode 
(heaven) of the god Tndra* is called Swerga in 
the Hindoo mythology ; Swerge is the Swedish 
name of Sweden,f and is situated near the north 
pole. Skand,^ the god of war, reigns there (Scan- 
dinavia), and seven steps (zones) lead thither, of 
which the most northern is named Thule,^ the 
ancient name of Sweden. 

The resemblance between the serpent of Mid- 
gard, in the Edda, and the serpent of Vishnou, in 
the Veda, is also worthy of remark, both being 
described as having encircled the world. But 
what is most deserving of observation is the ac- 

* Indra is the god of the firmament. 

t In one of the stanzas of the Mahab-harata, translated by a 
Brahmin into English verse, there are the following lines : — 

" And on the mount beneath this beam 
The king of Swerga's garden smiles." 

% See Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, p. 10. 

§ See Houghton's Religious Establishment of Merwar. 



110 BUDDHISM. 

cordance between the gates of TValhall and the 
Indian ages of the world, or yugs. According 
to the Edda, Walhall has 540 gates ; if this 
number be multiplied by 800, the number of 
Einheviers who can march out * abreast from each 
gate, the product will be 432,000, which forms 
the very elementary number for the so-frequently- 
named ages of the world, or yugs, adopted both 
in the doctrine of Brahma and Buddha, of which 
the one now in course will extend to 432,000 
years, the three preceding ones corresponding to 
this number multiplied by two, three, and four, f 
Although the Scandinavian myth thus appears 
to have its origin in Brahmaism, or rather in 
Buddhism, it has immensely degenerated from 
this doctrine, and presents but the picture of 
a people yet in a primitive state of nature ; whilst 

* Five hundred and forty doors I believe to be in Walhall. 
Eight hundred Einheriers can go out abreast when they are to 
fight against the Ulfven (the wolf). Here is meant the fatal 
encounter against Fenris- Ulfven, at the end of the world, when 
Oden, at the head of 432,000 armed Einheriers, takes the field 
against them. — (See the Edda.) 

t 1,728,000 = 4x432,000 
1,296,600=3x432,000 



BUDDHISM. Ill 

Buddhism bears the marks of a nation already 
far advanced in civilization. The former cele- 
brates bravery and strength as the highest triumph 
of humanity; the latter seeks it in the exercise 
of devotion, self-contemplation, and self-denial. 
Neither does the Scandinavian myth exhibit the 
least of that contemplative metaphysical character 
which distinguishes the doctrine of Buddha ; it 
is rough, warlike, and wild, like the people that 
professed it; but there is a deep sense in it 
which betrays its origin* 

* Odin (Sigge Fridulfson) came with his Asar from the 
coasts of the Black Sea ; Cholchis, on the same sea, was a colony 
of Buddhists. See Lindner, in his work on Scythia, according 
to Herodotus, and RennelVs Geography of Herodotus. 



112 



THE JAINAS. 



The Jainas (Dschainas) are a reformed reli- 
gious sect from Brahmaism, which adopts the 
doctrines of Buddhism ; but they are distinguished 
from the latter by having retained the division of 
castes, on which account they have been allowed 
to remain in India. 

The sect is of great antiquity, as is evident 
from the fact of many of the most ancient moun- 
tain temples having belonged to the Jainas ; they 
may have separated from the mother-church at 
the same time with the Buddhists. 

The Jainas acknowledge the Trimurti of the 
Brahmin religion, like the Buddhists, but not its 
other gods — at least not otherwise than as holy 
men. The Jainas have besides 27 peculiar saints, 
called Tirt-hankaras, whom they regard as Ava- 
tars, or incarnations of Vishnou ; they recognize, 
moreover, the incarnations of Siva. 

It is remarkable to observe how the unity com- 
bined with the trinity, for a period of more than 



? 



THE JAINAS. 113 

3000 years, forms a fundamental doctrine of the 
most ancient and most cultivated nations of the 
world. 

It is recognized in the doctrine of Brahma, of 
Buddha, of the Jainas, among the Egyptians, in 
Plato, Pythagoras, Parmenides, and among the 
Celtic Druids ; and above all it is found again, on 
a more sure basis, in the revealed doctrine of the 
Christian religion. 

But ought not this accordance in faith of the 
greatest and most distinguished portion of the 
human race, during the course of more than 3000 
years, respecting a mystery incomprehensible to 
the feeble understanding of man, — ought it not, I 
say, to be regarded as a further proof of the sub- 
lime truth which lies at its foundation ? 

/ The Jainas retain more vividly than the Brah- 
mins themselves, the doctrine of the transmigra- 
tion of the soul, and therefore have the greatest 
aversion to the killing of any animal. They 
protect them to such a degree that they 
even maintain hospitals for the most loathsome 
kinds. 

It is in the north-west of India that the Jainas 
have settled themselves, though not in great 

i 



114 THE JAINAS. 

numbers. Their temples are in general larger 
and more stately than those of the Brahmins, and 
they are themselves less superstitious than the 
orthodox Hindoos. 

Rishabha is the name of the most revered of 
their Tirt-hanJcars. He was an avatar, and came 
upon earth thirteen different times. A later 
Tirt-hankar is said to have been incarnate twenty- 
seven times. Godama (Gutha, Buddha) was, ac- 
cording to the Jamas, only a disciple of this Tirt- 
hankar. Thus it is that each sect exalts its own 
prophet above the rest. 

What has been stated in this and the preceding 
chapter on the origin, antiquity, and nature of 
Buddhism and the connected Jainaism,. is in sub- 
stance founded on the authors mentioned below,* 
who, although opposed to each other in several 
cases, have left the impression of the correctness 
of the general view taken here of those religions. 

* Abel Remusat, Essay sur la Doctrine des Buddhist ; 
Klaproth and Burnouf s articles in the Nouveau Journal 
Asiatique ; those of Colebrook and Wilson in the Transactions 
of the Royal Asiatic Society ; Schmidt's Treatises in the Trans- 
actions of the Academy of St. Petersburg ; William von Hum- 
boldt on the Kawi Dialect ; Upham on the Sangata Doctrine ; 
Deshauteray sur le Buddhisme en Chine ; and Houghton Hodg- 
son's Sketch of Buddhism in Nepaul. Older, but still instruc- 



THE JAINAS. 115 

tive sources, are — Coleman's Tigrana ; Franklin's Researches on 
the Doctrine of the Jainas and Buddhists ; James Law on Buddha 
and the Phrabat; several articles in the Asiatic Journal; 
A. W. Schlegel's Indische Bibliothek ; the Oriental Magazine. 

Carl Hitter, who is "so justly celebrated as a geographer, ap- 
pears to have been chargeable with exaggeration, when, in his 
learned etymologies, he gives the following statements re- 
specting Buddhism (See Vorhalle der Europseishen Volker 
Geschichten, pp. 30, 32.) 

t6 Ausser dem Nahmen, finden wir auch den Kultus des 
Buddh oder JBoda der Inder, durch gang Westasien und den 
Occident in sehr alter Zeit, unter mancherlei Wechseln, doch in 
gleichem Wesen verbreitet, als Goito Syr der Skythen (ToLrocrvpoQ. 
Herod. IV. 59), nach Herodot der Apollon, namlich wohl der 
Hyperboraische ; als Vod-her der Wenden, Bogh der Slaven, 
Odin der Sachsen und Scandinavier, Wodan der Germanen, 
Khoda der Perser, God der Britten, Gott der deutschen 
Sprache ; dagegen nicht aber den des Brahma ; dann blosse 
Namensverwandtschaft ware zu schwach, ihn in denn Bacchischen 
Zuge als Bromios (Euripid. Bach., v. 141) oder in Orpheus 
Brimo wiederfinden zu wollen (Orph. Argon, v. 17). Zugleich 
treffen wir jenen Namen wieder als einen reliogiosen ganzer 
Volker seines Kultus, namlich bey Budiern in Medien und 
Budinen in Skythenlande am Oaros an, beyde bei Herodot 
(Herod. I. 101, IV. 109) ; ferner bey Budi'dern und Bottiaeren 
nach Herodot, Thucydides und Strabo (Strabo, ed. Tzsch, VI. 
p. 287 ; Herod. VII. 123), in Macedonien, Japygia und am 
Adria-Meere. Wir finden ihn als die Benennung uraltester 
G otter, Heroen, Heiligthumer, Priestergeschlechter und Land- 
schaften im vorheraklidischen Griechenlande fast uberall ver- 
breitet und von grosser Bedentung ; so den Heros Buto (Bodo) 
in Dodona als Stifter des altesten Thessalischen Orakels, das 
fruher Bodana hiess (Steph. Byz. ed. Berkel. Fr. p. 235) ; die 
Minerva Budia, die im alten Thessalien verehrt ward (Lyco- 
phron. Cassandra, v. 359) ; Herakles den Budonen (BovSwrrje, 
Hesych. Alb. p. 757), der durch die Flamme gereinigt zu den 

i 2 



116 THE JAIN AS, 

Obern Gottern eingeht. Wir finden ihn in dem Vaterlande 
Achilles bey Homer, in dem wohlbewohnten Budeion (Ilias 
XVI. 572), in Attika im Tribus Butu-Oenoe bey Eleusis, auf 
Salamis und anderwarts in alten Festen und Bauten, Budoron 
genannt. Wir finden ihr haufig wieder, zumal auch in dem 
alten Attischen Heros Butes (Pausan. Attic. I. 26) und dessen 
Priestergeschlechte den Butaden und Eteobutaden, welche die 
altesten Priester der Pallas Athene waren, dem Homer schon 
bekannt ; in den Botachiden Arkadiens (Pausan. VIII. 45, und 
Steph. Byz. ed. Berkel. p. 252), in den Butakiden auf Naxos, 
in Karien, auf Sicilien als Erbaner des Tempels zu Eryx u. s. w. 
also in weiter Verbreitung im Siiden, nach vielen der altesten 
Fragmente der griechischen Autoren. Landeinwarts aber, im 
Germanischen, nordlichern Volkergebiete, ist derselbe Name, 
mit der alteste, bedeutendste unter alien, die auf uns gekommen, 
wie schon aus den verschiedenen Namen der Emporien (immer 
geweihete Stellen) Budorikum, Budorgis mitten in den Sudeten, 
Maro-boduum, dem Markomannensitze, Buddissin der Slaven, 
Butinfeld Wittekinds, diess hervorgeht, wie aus heiligen Was- 
sernamen, im Boden-See (Bodungo bey Geogr. Eav. ed. 
Porch, p. 187), der ein Heiligthum des Wodan war, das erst 
Sanct Gallus entweihete : im Bottnischen Meere (daher Coda- 
nus sinus) im fernen Hyperboraerlande und anderwarts, von 
denen unten weitlauftiger die Rede seyn wird." 



117 



THE SHEIKS. 



The Sheiks, or Seiks, form a religious sect which 
had united into a nation under the former empire 
of Runjet-Sing. They possess the Punjaub. 

JBaba Nanuk, a Hindoo of the Khetry caste, 
was the first founder of the sect ; he was born in 
1469, and died at 70 years of age, in Lahore. He 
was succeeded by several other Gurus or teach- 
ers, among whom Govindu Singh is the second 
and most famous founder of the sect. 

Baha NanuJcs object was to form into one doc- 
trine Brahmaism and Mahomedanism, but re- 
garding the deities of the Brahmins, more as 
holy men, sent by God for the amendment of 
mankind.* 

Govindu Singh gave another character to the 
sect. He rejected both the Alkoran and the 
Puranas, but retained the Vedas as being of a 

monotheistic nature. 

* See Sir John Malcolm's Sketch of the Sikhs, pp. 144, 197. 



118 THE SHEIKS. 

The sect was almost exterminated by the Af- 
ghan Bhadur Shah, Emperor of Delhi, but has 
again increased during the course of the last cen- 
tury, so that, being now united into a tribe, it 
holds under different chiefs possession of the said 
kingdom of Lahore. 

The chief seat of the Sheik religion is in Urn- 
ritzir (Umritu-Suru), a considerable town in the 
Punjaub. Its great temple preserves the sacred 
scripture of the Sheiks (Granthu), composed by 
Nanuh and by Govindu Singh. There the chief 
priest is seen seated upon a throne, holding the 
sacred book before him, absorbed in contempla- 
tion. The people kneel down and make prayers 
often by night, when the temple is illuminated* 
On an altar with gold brocade, lies a sword and 
shield, as symbols of the martial spirit of the 
sect. In the fore court of the temple is a sacred 
spring called the well of immortality, which, 
from its magnitude, 300 feet in circumference,! 
forms a natural phenomenon. 

* See Jaquemont's Voyage aux Indes, Tibet, et Cachemire. 
t See Baron von Hiigel's Kaschmir und das Reich der Seiks, 
Vol. III. p. 403. 



119 



THE MAHOMETAN TRIBES IN INDIA, THE GITE- 
BERS OR PARSES, AND THE SYRIAN CHRIS- 
TIANS. 



The Mahometans of India, are descended from 
its former conquerors, the Mongols, Afghans, 
and Persians, and constitute a population of not 
less than 15,000,000, so that the queen of England 
has more Mussulmans under her sceptre than the 
Grand Sultan himself. 

Tamerlane s conquest of Hindostan, and the 
continuance of his dynasty upon the throne of 
Delhi for several centuries, has caused a great 
portion of the princes of India, as well as their 
courtiers, to become Mussulmans. 

The Mussulmans are in general a more moral 
sect than the adherents of Brahma. The Old Tes- 
tament is retained in the Alkoran, and Christ 



120 MAHOMETANS IN INDIA. 

himself is considered as a prophet. The great 
defect of the doctrine, independent of its errors, 
lies in polygamy, which depraves everything, 
degrades the woman, and forms an inexhaustible 
source of decay within the closed Harem. 

The devotion in external form of the Maho- 
metan is greater than that of the Christian, 
and shows what an influence the prophet has 
exercised on the minds of his disciples. 

The Guebers or Parses occupy, next to the 
Mahometans, the first place among the foreign 
creeds of India. They are a remarkable people, and 
have, although surrounded by other religions, pre- 
served their doctrine in its purity. They adore 
the sun as an emblem of the Supreme Being, and 
maintain in their temples the sacred fire, as a 
symbol thereof. Zoroaster was the founder of 
their religion, and their scripture is the Zend- 
Avesta. The Parses came from Persia, about 900 
years ago, and have spread themselves in the 
western parts of India ; the town of Bombay con- 
tains about 10,000 of them. They are distin- 
guished by their fine appearance, their prosperous 
condition, and their industry. Next to the Eng- 
lish, they carry on the greatest trade in India, 



GUEBERS OR PARSES. 121 

are excellent ship-builders, belong to the middle 
classes, and do not pay any attention to agri- 
culture. 

Syrian Christians are also found in India, who 
follow the doctrine preached by the Apostle 
Thomas. They had formerly upwards of a 
thousand churches in the western part of India, but 
were so severely persecuted by the Portuguese, 
in the seventeenth century, that they have now 
but a small number left. The priesthood of the 
Syrian church is hereditary in those families to 
which the Apostle committed the sacred office. 
They do not recognize the infallibility of the 
pope, the sanctity of the Virgin, or the images of 
the saints, and thus approximate to the Protestant 
church ; their ritual is, however, in Latin. 

In the Himalaya mountains there is a people, 
which, though of Hindoo religion, differs from 
the rest in several particulars ; instead of poly- 
gamy,* they have adopted polyandrie ; which 
gives every wife the right to take several hus- 
bands ; brothers are chosen by way of preference. 

* Brahmaism, according to the laws of Menu, enjoins but 
one wife, but permits two concubines, which are kept by the 
rich only. 



122 SYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 

This custom is derived from the adjacent 
country of Thibet, where it has existed for many 
centuries.* 

* See Conolly's Journey to the North of India, and Turner's 
Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama. 



123 



NATIONS OF INDIA. 



The Hindoos may be divided into two great 
sections, one of which occupies Hindostan, the 
northern part of the Indian peninsula, whilst the 
other occupies the Deccan, which forms the 
southern part. Those parts are separated from each 
other by the river Nerbudda, and by the Vindhia 
mountains, inhabited by a darker race than the 
Hindoos, and with a language not of Sanscrit 
origin. 

That portion of the Hindoo nation, which occu- 
pies the Hindostan, has the common name of 
Ariens, derived from the Sanscrit word Arja, which 
signifies " good people — obedient to the law." 
They settled first in Oude, between the Ganges 
and the Sarja, where the sacred cities of Ajod- 
hid and Pratishshana were situated. 

The people of the Deccan are descended from 
those of Hindostan. Their language is the Tamul, 



124 NATIONS OF INDIA. 

which has degenerated more from the Sanscrit, 
than the different languages of the nations of 
Hindostan. 

The Ramajana celebrates the emigration of the 
people of Arja, to the south of the Vindhian moun- 
tains in the Deccan, which at that time was wild 
and covered with forests. The chief of one of 
those migrations, Agastia, is mentioned in the 
poem. The inhabitants whom he found in the 
mountains of Vindhia are called Apes, and play a 
part in the conquests of Rama, of the island of 
Ceylon {Lanka). 

The above-mentioned two great sections of the 
Hindoo people are subdivided into a multitude of 
others, forming nations which, in character, ap- 
pearance, and manners, differ from each other 
much the same as the nations of Europe. We 
find among them many which are warlike and 
active, and others who are effeminate and indo- 
lent. The nations who inhabit the northern part 
of India, Ray as than, the Punjaub, Malwa, Oude, 
and Rohilcund are warlike, the southern more 
indolent. In Rayasthan, we may fancy ourselves 
carried back to the middle ages of Europe, and to 
the times of feudalism. On the summits of the 



NATIONS OF INDIA. 125 

mountains we find castles with walls and watch- 
towers not inferior to those whose ruins still adorn 
the banks of the Rhine, the Loire, and the 
Danube. There the Raypoot resides, surrounded 
by his vassals, like the ancient feudal lord in 
Europe. Mounted on his charger, with helmet, 
shield, and lance, he carries on the hereditary 
feud against some hostile neighbour ; while his 
dark-eyed daughter is seen on her Arabian steed, 
hunts the tiger, or tends the wounded warrior 
in her fathers castle. 

To the south of Rayasthan we meet the Mali- 
rattas, a martial people, fanatically devoted to their 
religion, and unwearied defenders of India, a 
great portion of which they had themselves sub- 
dued. With the swiftness of the wind, you see 
thousands of Mahratta cavalry attack a state, often 
very distant, lay waste and destroy everything in 
their way. They say, that the saddle of their 
Rayah's horse, is his Durbar (throne), and that 
every land belongs to him, which he can reach 
with the lances of his soldiers. Still more warlike 
are the Pindaries, properly a band of freebooters, 
but of such a formidable description that they once 
possessed upwards of 30,000 cavalry in the field. 



126 NATIONS OF INDIA. 

As a contrast to these warlike tribes, we find 
in the south-eastern parts of the peninsula, in 
Bengal, Circars, and the Camatic, an effeminate, 
weak, peaceful people, who toil in their rice-fields, 
and tend their sugar-canes, without caring who 
holds the rule in India, — the Mogul, the Mahratt, 
or the Briton, — provided they can get their har- 
vest in security, and can offer to the images of 
their gods in peace. 

But everything is peculiar, grand, and romantic 
in India, — from the steel-clad knight of Rayas- 
than, to the devoted Brahmin in the temples of 
Benares ; from the fierce Mahratt on his fleet and 
active steed, to the Nabob moving gently on his 
elephant ; from the amazon, who chases the tiger 
in the jungle, to the Bayadere who offers in volupte 
to her Gods. Nature, too, in this glorious coun- 
try is chequered with variety, and clad in glowing 
colours : see the luxuriance of her tropical vege- 
tation, and the hurricane of her monsoons ; see 
the majesty of her snow-covered Himalaya, and 
the dryness of her deserts ; see the immense plains 
of Hindostan, and the scenery of her lofty moun- 
tains ; but, above all, see the immense age of 
her history, and the poetry of her recollections ! 



NATIONS OF INDIA. 127 

\How these affect and elevate the human mind, 
we feel in our own breast. Does not the petty 
stream where Ilion stood, affect the mind more 
warmly than the Ohio and the Mississippi ? Does 
not the Roman capitol in its decayed state, in- 
spire a greater interest than the new-built house 
which bears this name at Washington ? Why ! 
the past is the poetry of the heart, the present its 
often pale and colourless drama, the future the 
ominous enigma of which the solution is, — in the 
hand of the Almighty) 



128 



COSMOGONY OF THE HINDOOS. 



The sacred writings of the Hindoos contain re- 
markable accounts of the creation, and of the 
inundation of the world. (According to those 
writings this inundation took place 3000 years 
before Christ, # which pretty well accords with 
the computations of our own holy scriptures. (] 

The cosmogony of the Hindoos is contained not 
alone in the Vedas, and in the Vedanta, but also 
in the codex of Menu. 

This codex commences, like the books of 
Moses, with an account of the creation of the 
world, which is expressed in the following 
terms :| — 

! Menu (Manu), absorbed in contemplation, was 

* See Mountstuart Elphinstone 's History of India, vol. I. 
p. 258. 

| We here follow the translation from the Sanscrit which has 
lately been published by Loiseleur des Long- Champs. 



THE COSMOGONY OF THE HINDOOS. 129 

surrounded by Maharchis (angels), who with hu- 
mility said to him — 

T Lord, thou who alone knowest the original 
principle (the Creator), self-subsistent, infinite, in- 
comprehensible, and inconceivable to the feeble 
understanding of man, tell us, who were they who 
were first created, and who were they who were 
created afterwards V 

Menu cautiously replied, " The world was 
sunk in darkness, was invisible, and could not be 
discovered either by the power of thought or 
in reality, for it lay sunk in slumber ; but when 
the slumber (pralay-chaos) was at an end, He 
then made the world visible, with its five ele- 
ments, and its other appurtenances; He who 
created himself, and who cannot be comprehended 
by our senses.* 

ei He, shining with the most glorious bright- 
ness, dispelled the mist, and developed nature 
(Pracrita). 

" He whom the spirit alone can comprehend, 
but not the faculty of man ; He who is invisible, 

* The name of the Creator, too holy to be pronounced aloud, 
is Aum; it is written A. U. M., which three letters denote the 
three persons of the Hindoo Trimurti. 

K 



130 THE COSMOGONY 

who is eternal, who is the soul of all beings, then 
developed all his glory. 

" Resolving in his inward thought, from his own 
substance to create the world, he first made the 
water, and deposited the seed (germen) therein. 

" From this germ arose an egg (foetus), which, 
like the sun, shone with a thousand rays ; it was 
in this that the Almighty was brought forth to 
the world, under the form of Brahma, the author 
of everything living. 

" The water was called Naras, because it was 
created by Nara, the holy spirit, who hovered over 
the water ; and the spirit was called Narajana, 
because he hovered over the w^ater. 

" It is the eternal principle (Verbum) which 
thus created the divine being (Pouroncha), known 
in the world under the name of Brahma. 

" After Brahma had remained one of his years* 
in the light-beaming egg, he separated it by the 
power of his will alone, made thereof heaven and 
earth, which he divided by air and water. 1f" 

* One of Brahma's years corresponds to a period of the world 
iyug) of 432,000 solar years. 

f That the Greeks derived their cosmogony from the Hin- 
doos, may be seen in the account which Damascius has given of 



OF THE HINDOOS. 131 

The Buddhists have another cosmogony than 
that of the Brahmins: their sacred writings, 
Tantras, contain the following account of the 
creation of man :* — 

" In the beginning the earth was uninhabited ; 
at which time the inhabitants of heaven, or of 
Bhurana (the angels), used to visit the earth. 

' These glorious beings, consisting of men and 
women, through the purity of their spirit, had 
never yet cherished any sensual desires, when A. 
Di Buddha (the supreme God) infused into them 
the desire to taste the fruit of a tree resembling 
the almond, which excited the( sexual appetite in 
them, and they afterwards disdained to return to 
Bhurana (heaven), and thus became the parents 
of the human race. 

the doctrine of Orpheus, (Vide Creuzer's Symbolik, "Vol. I.) 
It is as follows : — " In the beginning was Kronos, who out of 
Chaos created JEther (day), and Erebos (night) ; therein he 
laid an egg (Hindoo !), from which came Phanes, furnished with 
three heads (the Brahmin Trimurti) ; Phanes created the 
man and the woman, from whom the human race is derived." 

The cosmogony of the Egyptians also adopts the Hindoo egg, 
which, divided into two, formed heaven and earth. (Vide Dio- 
dorus and Plutarch). 

* See Houghton Hodgson's Letter to Colebrooke, on the Cos- 
mogony of the Buddhists of Thibet. Asiatic Society's Journal, 
Vol. II. part 1, p. 234. 

K 2 



132 THE COSMOGONY 

" The first-born man was called Malta Samvat 
(the great first-born) ; he was king over the whole 
earth," &c. &c. 

The cosmogonies of the other oriental nations 
are more or less in accordance either with that of 
the Brahmins or with that of the Buddhists. 

Not one of them, however, exhibits such a cha- 
racter of sublimity, truth, and inspiration as the 
Mosaic cosmogony, which is too well known to 
require to be repeated here. 

Its chronological computations (according to 
certain genealogical registers) do not, however, 
agree with those of all other ancient nations; 
and as these computations do not form any es- 
sential part of the contents of the sacred scrip- 
tures, we may be allowed, without prejudice to 
them, to compare its calculations with those of 
some other Asiatic nations. # 

This may so much the rather be done, as these 
computations are even different in the very text of 
the Mosaic scriptures : thus we find, for example, 

* The names given in the Mosaic genealogies may possibly be 
those of entire dynasties or families (as in the Egyptian chro- 
nology), and not of individuals', if so, it would considerably in- 
crease the time alleged. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 133 

that the Alexandrine text, differs from the Maso« 
retical Hebrew text, by no less than 1376 years in 
the computation of the time elapsed between the 
creation and the deluge* 

On comparing the Mosaic chronology with that 
of other early nations, we shall follow the Alex- 
andrine text as being the most ancient, and that 
which, by its higher computation of time, best 
agrees with the chronologies of the other ancient 
nations. 

The Alexandrine version of the Mosaic books 
reckons a period of 2262 years as separating the 
creation from the deluge, and a space of 3138 
years as dividing the deluge from the conquest of 
Egypt by Alexander. If we assume this to have 
taken place about 350 years before Christ, we 
shall have a period of 5750 years between the 
birth of Christ, and the existence of man upon the 
earth, f 

* See J. Miiller's Versuch uber die Zeitrechnung der Vor- 
welt. 

t According to the Masoretic text, it is not more than 4374 
years. Klaproth (see Asie Polyglotte) quotes a passage from 
Kennicot, in which that profound Hebraist avows a reluctant 
conviction, that of the three eldest versions of the Old Testa- 
ment, the Jewish, the Septuagint, and the Samaritan, the former 
has been designedly falsified. 



134 THE COSMOGONY 

But this space of time is infinitely small in 
comparison with the records of all other Asiatic 
nations ; and these records, if in no other respect, 
yet, at least, in a chronological point of view, are 
deserving of our attention. 

Thus, for example, the Bactrian document, 
called Dabistari*, gives an entire register of 
kings, namely, of the Mahabadernes, whose first 
link reigned in Bactria (the present Balk and 
Bamean) 5600 years before Alexander's expedi- 
tion to India, and consequently several hundred 

It appears that there was a tradition amongst the Jews, that 
the advent of the Messiah was to take place in the six thou- 
sandth year of the world. 

It became, therefore, an object of the Jews, to show that the 
date of our Saviour's ministry was too early for this period of 
the six thousand years, and an object of the Christians, to prove 
the contrary. For this purpose the former counted genealogies 
in such a manner, as to place the flood 2348 years before the 
birth of Christ. 

The latter (the Christians) counted between 3000 and 4000 
years, namely, the Samaritans 3044, and the Septuagint text, 
3716. If we take the Samaritan calculation of 3044 years be- 
tween Christ and the flood, and take 2262 years between the 
flood and the creation of man, it gives a period of 5306 between 
Christ and the creation of man, and an elapsed term of 7150 
years to the present year, 1844. 

* Found in Cashmeere, and brought to Europe by Sir Wil- 
liam Jones. According to W. Schlegel, the Dabistan is of Per- 
sian origin, and of more recent date. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 135 

years before the time given by the Alexandrine 
text, for the appearance of the first man upon the 
earth. 

So also the Iran record gives a whole regis- 
ter of kings, namely, the Pischdadiernes, whose 
founder reigned 5400 years before the expedition 
of Alexander to India, and who consequently, 
according to the computation of the Alexan- 
drine text, would have been contemporary with 
Adam.* 

Diodorus mentions a Turanic or Sogdianic dy- 
nasty, that of the Elohernes 3 -\ who reigned long 
before the period of the creation, as stated in the 
Mosaic records. 

So also the Chinese document (Schuking) al- 
ready mentioned, gives registers of kings far 
more ancient than the Adamic period. Ma- 
netho likewise specifies genealogies of Egyp- 
tian kings, which extend 2000 years farther 
back than the time given by the Alexandrine 
text for the period of the creation, and more 

* See J. Miiller's Versuch iiber die Zeitrechnung der Vor- 
welt. 

\ This dynasty of twelve kings, which commences with He- 
lios, and closes with Aphroditis, may possibly be symbolical, and 
denote the twelve signs of the Zodiac. 



136 THE COSMOGONY 

than 3000 years prior to that of the Masoretic 
text.* 

These comparisons lead to the natural conclu- 
sion that we have not rightly comprehended the 
chronology of the Mosaic records, and that the 
space of time elapsed between the creation of man 
and the flood, must have been much greater than 
this document appears to specify. 

This conclusion, if well founded, might justify 
the attempt to ascertain, not the time of the cre- 
ation of man, or the place of his first abode (the 
biblical Eden), which is a mere theological ques- 
tion ; but the time in which the progenitors of the 
human race were congregated to a people, and 
the geographical place of the abode of this people, 
may be found on earth. 

In order to ascertain this time and this place, 
we must first inquire what the records of an- 
cient nations relate, respecting the great deluge 
which overflowed the earth, where and in what 
countries men then existed, and from whence 
they came to these countries. 

The Indian Bhagavat-Purana (in a chapter en- 

* Schlozer and JRotteck on this account do not consider the 
Egyptians to have been Noachidce. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 137 

titled Matoya Avatar) expresses itself in the fol- 
lowing manner concerning the great flood which 
overflowed the earth, and whereby the greater 
part of mankind perished. 

" Vishnou," says the Purana, " manifested him- 
self under the form of a little fish, which was 
continually becoming larger, in order to warn 
the virtuous king Sakiavrata* of the great de- 
luge which would destroy everything. Vish- 
nou did this in the following words : — '(After 
seven days/ said he, ' a great flood will take place 
upon the earth, and destroy everything that ex- 
ists, together with mankind, on account of their 
sins ; but I will send to thee a great ship, into 
which thou shalt bring all useful plants and their 
seeds ; and let seven holy men accompany thee, 
and take with thee a pair of all living animals, 
in order to save thyself and them, from the ge- 
neral destruction. No other light shall then 
be found upon earth but the lustre of the holy 
men who attend thee/ " &c. 

This Purana gives an astronomical computa- 
tion, according to which the great deluge 

* He was king in Dravira, a state in the southern part of 
the Deccan. 



138 THE COSMOGONY 

took place about 3000 years before the birth of 
Christ.* 

The Hindoos maintain that the present period 
of the world, Kali-Yug, commenced at the close 
of this deluge. The name Kali- Yug, with the 
addition of Dew (Dios, Deus), forms the root of 
the Deukalion of the Greeks. The Hindoos, who 
personified everything, represented this period of 
the world under the form of a deml-god, the 
son of Pramathesa, from which the Greeks 
formed Prometheus, whose son was Deukalion. 

After the Hindoo tradition of the flood, we 
give that of the Zend-people's, contained in their 
sacred scriptures. The Zend-Avesta says that 
a fire-spitting star (a comet) fell upon the earth 
and kindled a fire therein, when Ormuzd (the 
good principle, in opposition to Ahriman, the 
evil principle) extinguished the fire by inundating 
the earth with a great flood of water, which de- 
stroyed the greater part of the human race.7\ 

Bundehesch, the sacred scripture of the ancient 
Persians (Parsees), contains the same account. \It 
says that Cayonmortz and his wife were the only 

* See Sir William Jones's Works, Vol. I. page 230. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 139 

persons who escaped the great deluge, and that 
all men now existing are descended from these 
two.^ 

The most ancient traditions of the Chinese, re- 
ported in the Schuking, state (see De Guignes) 
that Jao (who, according to this chronicle, reigned 
2350 years before Christ), by digging canals, car- 
ried off the water, which* in consequence of a 
great and universal deluge, caused the low lands, 
still under his reign, to be uninhabitable. This 
deluge, according to the same chronicle, is said 
to have been so terrible, that it rose to the skies. 

The Chaldee records contain the following ac- 
count of the great flood which overflowed the 
earth (see Berosi Chaldseorum Historia, edited 
by Richter) :-^Kronos, it says, showed himself in 
sleep to Xisuthros, the king of Chaldea, and in- 
formed him that on the fifteenth day of the month 
Dcesios* a great flood would destroy everything 
on earth. Kronos therefore commanded Xisuthros 
to build a vessel Jive stadia in length, and two 

* We here find the solar year divided into months, which 
supposes a far advanced state of astronomical science at the time 
when the deluge took place, and of course a considerable pro- 
gress in civilization. 



140 THE COSMOGONY 

stadia in breadth, upon which he should bring 
his relations, friends, meat and drink, and all kinds 
of animals and plants. It says further, that Xi- 
suthros, when the flood decreased, sent out some 
birds, which, as they did not return on the third 
day, caused him to know that the deluge was at 
an end. It states that Xisuthros rested with his 
vessel on a mountain called Korydureus, where 
he erected an altar, sacrificed to the gods, and 
disappeared in a cloud. 

Xisuthros (Sesostris), according to Berosus, 
lived 2000 years before him, and as Berosus lived 
500 years before Christ, the great deluge, from 
this account, must have occurred 2500 years be- 
fore Christ. 

The chronicle of the Armenians gives the same 
account of the deluge, and states that it took place 
3000 years before Christ. JosepJms names a town 
that was built upon the mountain on which the 
ark rested, and which after this event was called 
Nohidchedan. 

The Grecian mythology relates how Deukalion, 
king of Pythia, was informed by Zeus of the 
great flood which should destroy the human race. 
It states that Zeus ordered him to build a vessel 



Or THE HINDOOS. 141 

of cedar- wood, in which he might save himself 
and his family, and that the vessel rested on 
mount Parnassus, which, according to the calcu- 
lation of Hoserius, took place 2500 years before 
the birth of Christ. 

Ogyges (a second Grecian Noah), according 
to Varro, lived 2540 years before Christ. The 
account of this flood agrees with that of Deuka- 
lion. 

Apollodorus mentions the vessel in which Deu- 
kalion was saved, and also the doves which were 
let out, in order to ascertain if the flood had 
abated. 
LThere is still to be found in the hall of the pro- 
pyleum tower at Karnak (Egypt) a painted re- 
presentation of the ark. 

Diodorus mentions the model of an ark, 280 
cubits long, of cedar, overlaid with gold, and de- 
dicated by Sesostris to the Temple of Ammon at 
Thebes. 

Plato makes mention of the great deluge (in 
Timaeus), and refers the destruction of Atlantis to 
this event. 

{ The Edda also makes mention of this flood : 
according to it, all the Rimthussars were drowned 



142 THE COSMOGONY 

by it with the exception of the old one on the 
mountain (Berggembler). 

The Mosaic record of the deluge and of Noah's 
ark, is too well known by us to require to be re- 
peated. It accords in several particulars with the 
accounts of other oriental nations, and of the time 
recorded by them, namely, from 2500 to 3000 
years before Christ. The main fact, that a great 
deluge overflowed the earth, from which only a 
few persons were saved, is therefore confirmed by 
the early traditions of all ancient nations* 



* But whence arises this unusual accordance in the account 
of so remote an event ? Moses, who lived 800 years after the 
deluge (according to the Hebrew text of the sacred Scriptures, 
650 years according to the Samaritan version, and according to 
the Septuagint, 1550 years), could not have obtained any other 
knowledge of this occurrence than that which he probably ac- 
quired by means of some document ; at least the sacred Scrip- 
tures do not mention any revelation in this respect. But 
whence did Moses obtain this document ? This is a question 
which deserves investigation. 

The wonderful birth and education of Moses is well known : 
protected by the daughter of the Egyptian king, brought up in 
the royal palace, which was the centre of the pomp of a great 
kingdom, he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 
and thus became a man, " mighty in word and deeds." Strabo 
mentions Moses as an Egyptian priest, who endeavoured to abo- 
lish animal sacrifices. 

Justin regards Moses as being endowed by nature with the 



OF THE HINDOOS. 143 

Having seen how the traditions of the most an- 
cient nations bear witness that a great flood over- 
most extraordinary talents, and, like his ancestor Joseph, being 
able to interpret dreams, and to perform miracles. 

Manetho passes a less favourable judgment on Moses and his 
people ; he calls them a miserable nation, doomed to the most 
contemptible and laborious work, namely, the digging of canals 
and making of roads ; and who, in order to escape from a dis- 
graceful slavery, chose for their leader a priest of Heliopolis, 
named Osarsiph, who gave them a new religion, and assumed 
the name of Moses. 

/ Diodorus of Sicily speaks of the lawgiver of the Hebrews as a 
man of great wisdom and tried courage, the chief of a strange 
people, who lived in slavery ; and who conducted them from 
Egypt to the neighbouring wilderness, where he gave laws, ap- 
pointed priests and other officers, but retained himself the high- 
est power, of which, from his character and intelligence, he was 
worthy. 
*S Clemens of Alexandria affirms that Moses, when he attained 
a sufficient age, studied in the colleges of the priests in Egypt, 
and afterwards with the most distinguished teachers, arithmetic, 
geometry, rhythm, harmony, medicine, and music ; moreover, 
that Moses had devoted his time to that kind of science which 
consisted in symbols and hieroglyphics, and which, by Justin 
Martyr ', is denominated the symbolical part of the sacred scrip- 
ture of the Egyptians. 

The same Justin Martyr proposes the following question : — 
" Why Moses, who was instructed in all the sciences which then 
flourished in Egypt, did not also apply himself to astronomy, 
geometry, astrology, and such like studies ?" To this question 
he gives the following answer: — " Moses devoted himself only 
to the highest science, since astronomy, astrology, and geometry 
were not particularly esteemed by the Egyptians. On the con- 
trary, they set a high value upon the knowledge of hieroglyphics, 



144 THE COSMOGONY 

flowed the earth, and destroyed the greater part 
of mankind, we must now inquire how far science 
accords with tradition. 

The father of geological science in its present 
form, Cuvier, expresses the following opinion, in 
his Discours sur les Revolutions de la Surface 
du Globe* page 283 of the 5 th Paris edition, :| — 
" I (Cuvier) consider, with Messrs. Deluc and Do- 
lomieu, that if there is anything established in 
geology, it is the fact that the surface of the 
earth has been the subject of a great and sudden 
revolution, the date of which cannot go much 

in which the most distinguished persons received instruction in 
the temples." According to another Egyptian tradition, Moses 
received a royal education, was at the same time formed for a 
prophet, legislator, warrior, statesman, and philosopher, — all of 
which qualities, according to the view of the ancients, were ne- 
cessary for a king. 

If we reflect upon all these testimonies respecting Moses (de- 
rived entirely from profane authors), and consider the place (He- 
liopolis) where he studied, and if we also recollect that the 
religion of the Egyptians was derived from India, we thus find 
a clue from whence Moses must partly have obtained his cosmo- 
gony, and also his religious system, which, like the Vedas was 
constructed upon monotheistic principles. 

* This is, in fact, only the preface to his large work, Sur les 
Ossemens Fossiles. 

■f Vide Conclusion Ge'ne'rale relative a l'Epoque de la derniere 
Revolution. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 145 

further back than jive or six thousand years ;* that 
this revolution has sunk (enfonce) or caused to 
disappear (fait disparaitre) those lands which 
were formerly inhabited by man, together with 
those species of animals which are now the most 
common; that, on the other hand, it has made 
dry (mis a sec) the former bottom of the sea, and 
formed of the same the lands which are now in- 
habited ; that it was only after this revolution 
that the small number of individuals who were 
saved, spread and propagated themselves upon 
the ground (terrain), which then came into view ; 
and, consequently, that it is only from this period 
that societies of men have existed, formed settle- 
ments, erected monuments, collected natural facts, 
and combined them into scientific sy stems. "f 

Although we must regard conclusions at which 
so eminent a man as Cuvier has arrived as proved, 

* Cuvier's calculation respecting the period of the deluge 
agrees pretty nearly with the records of this event (see p. 172). 
Forchhammer says, in his Geology of Bornholm, that the Rullsten- 
deluge must have taken place between four and five thousand years 
back, thus, also, somewhat in accordance with the traditions. 

t The translation is literal, in order that the meaning of the 
author might not be misrepresented. 

L 



146 THE COSMOGONY 

when they rest upon facts, an hypothesis set up 
by him is not of so binding a nature. I admit, 
with Cuvier, " that the surface of the earth has 
been the subject of a great and sudden revolution, 
the date of which cannot go much farther back 
than jive or sice thousand years," but I question 
the very possibility " that this revolution has sunk 
(enfonce) or caused to disappear all those lands 
which were then inhabited by man; made dry 
the former bottom of the sea, and formed of this, 
the land which is now inhabited." 

My doubts rest upon the following grounds : — 

1. Neither Cuvier, Deluc, nor Dolomieu has ad- 
duced a single fact or a single reason in support 
of this point. 

2. It calls to mind Plato's account of the dis- 
appearing of Atlantis (Vide the Timaeus, and 
Critias of Plato), which Cuvier himself calls 
Romanesque, p. 192. 

3. "If all those lands which were formerly 
inhabited by man, together with those kinds of 
animals which are now most common, should 
have sunk (enfonce), or have disappeared, whilst 
the present continents had raised themselves from 



OF THE HINDOOS. 147 

the bottom of the sea;" how could, in such a 
case, a single human being, or a single animal, 
have escaped from those parts of the world, which 
were entirely sunk ? 

4. The records of all ancient nations, indicate 
plainly, many of the countries which were 
overflowed by the deluge, such as China, India, 
Persia, Chaldea, Babylon, Armenia, Greece, &c. 
Accounts which could not have existed, if the 
parts of the world which were overflowed had, ac- 
cording to Cuvier, sunk to the bottom of the sea. 

These reasons induce me to regard the hypo- 
thesis set up by Cuvier, Deluc, and Dolomieu, as 
improbable, and not based upon geological 
facts; on the contrary, it appears probable 
that the last great deluge* overflowed the present 
parts of the world, and not a continent sunk to the 
bottom of the sea. 

Did this deluge overflow different parts of 
the earth successively, or the whole planet at 
once ? Were the Noachidce alone saved, or 

* The geological inundations which happened in primitive 
times, cannot here come in question, but only the historical 
deluge. 

L 2 



148 THE COSMOGONY 

other persons also ? To these questions geology 
affords no decisive answer. 

Let us now see what information geology 
supplies respecting another important question, 
namely, Whether man was created or not, when 
the great deluge took place? Cuvier expresses 
himself on this point in the following manner (see 
the same work, page 351) : — 

\What is most astonishing is the fact, that 
among all those mammifera, of which the greater 
part now have their species (congeneres) in the 
warm climates, there is not found a single quadru- 
mane, not a single bone or tooth of any monkey ; 
not even a bone or a tooth of an extinct species. 
Neither has there been found (in diluvial strata) 
any human being ; all the bones of our species 
which have been discovered, together with the 
fossil remains of the animals, of which we (Cuvier) 
have spoken, have been found accidentally there, 
and their number is small, which certainly 
would not have been the case if men had made 
settlements in the lands which were inhabited 
by these animals. 

r But where, then, was the human race ?" ex- 



OF THE HINDOOS. 149 

claims Cuvier, — " this most perfect work of the 
Creator? Did it exist anywhere upon the earth ? 
Those kinds of animals by which men are now 
surrounded, and of which no remains are found 
among the fossils, did they surround them then? 
The country which they together inhabited, has 
it been sunk (engloutis), whilst the lands which 
are now inhabited have again come into view 
(ont ete remis a sec) ? Respecting all these ques- 
tions, the study of fossils affords no information, 
and we must not here have recourse to other 
sources than these." 

Cuvier appears thus to doubt the existence of 
man on those parts of the earth which are now 
brought in view (mis a sec), at the time when the 
great deluge occurred (see page 137) ; however, 
he thus expresses himself in page 138 : — 

*\ I will not thence conclude that man could not 
have existed before this period, since he might 
possibly have inhabited some smaller country, 
from which, after these terrible events, he might 
again be able to people the earth." 

But if the before-mentioned hypothesis of Cuvier 
be true, namely, that all the countries then existing 
were sunk into the bottom of the sea, how could 



150 THE COSMOGONY 

man have been saved from the general destruc- 
tion " in some smaller country ?" 

Other distinguished geologists do not go so far 
as Cuvier. Thus Buckland, for instance (in his 
excellent work ' Geology and Mineralogy con- 
sidered with reference to Natural Theology,' page 
103), says, that not a trace of man has been found 
in the series of the geological formations. Lyell 
expresses himself in a similar manner. (See 
' Principles of Geology,' Vol. I. page 153.) 

Thus we find that whilst Cuvier maintains that 
man did not exist upon the earth (at least not in 
any of the present continents) at the time of the 
last great deluge, Buckland and Lyell only say 
that no human being has been found in the series 
of those geological formations, which, according to 
their system, comprise the periods of the tertial 
series, Eocena, Miocena, and Pliocena. 

For the last of these periods, Buckland, in his 
remarkable work, Reliquice Diluviance, has spe- 
cified the kinds of animals which then existed, 
among the fossil bones of which no human bone 
has been discovered. Buckland declares, how- 
ever, that he does not consider this flood identical 
with that recorded in the sacred scriptures. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 151 

/- Forchhammer asserts, in his geological lectures, 
" that petrified human bones have been found 
from the diluvial period, and that the human race 
actually existed before the cataclysm we call 
the deluge, and survived it, 

Von Schlottheim states that he discovered human 
bones in a fissure of a rock at Costritz, together 
with fossils of the rhinoceros (consequently a 
Pachy derma of the tertial period). 

Christol, Marcel de Serres,* and Boue have dis- 
covered a great number of human bones and 
skulls, together with fossils of tropical animals, 
in grottoes in the south of France.f 

Buckland states, in the above-mentioned work, 
Reliquce Diluviance, that he found the skeleton of 
a woman, together with needles of bone, in a 
grotto at Pavyland.% 

Cuvier says that he found the jaw-bone of a man 
at Nica, but cannot tell at what period it came there. 

* Marcel de Serres, Journal de Geologie, T. III. page 245. 

f Annales des Sciences Naturelles, T. XII. page 78 ; T. 
XVIII. page 242. 

{ The human skeleton found in Guadaloupe is not fossil, it is 
from a very recent period, the time of the discovery of the 
island by the Spaniards. 



152 THE COSMOGONY 

Schmerling expresses his conviction that the 
human bones which were found in the grottoes at 
Liege are contemporaneous with the fossils by 
which they were surrounded (see Recherches sur 
les Ossemens Fossiles des Cavernes de Liege) ; 
and Silliman (the most remarkable instance) says, 
that in North America petrified human bones 
have been found, together with fossils of the mas- 
todon, not only in grottoes and clefts of rocks, but 
in diluvial strata. (See 'American Journal/ Vol. 
XXXVI. page 198.) 

Without entering into an examination of these 
different statements, we may admit the following 
conclusions, namely : — 

1st. That the existence of man upon the earth 
is more recent than the series of the geological 
formations to which the Miocena period of the 
tertial formations, if not also its Pliocena, must 
be reckoned. 

2nd. That the existence of man upon the earth 
is older than the last great deluge, as is demon- 
strated by scripture, history, and geology. 

3rd. That the existence of man upon the earth 
must consequently have taken place between these 



OF THE HINDOOS. 153 

two periods, which probably were separated from 
each other by many thousand years. 

4th. That, therefore, human bones might be 
found together with fossils of antediluvian ani- 
mals, but not with those of animals of those kinds 
which belong to the period of the geological for- 
mations. 

It does not appear to agree either with the 
statements of the sacred scripture, or with 
history, or with geology, that the human race, 
with the exception of the Noachidce, has been 
extirpated by that cataclysm, since the scripture 
makes mention of the cities of Babel and Nineveh 
(Gen. x. 8-11; xi. 1-7), already in the third 
generation of Noah, the building and peopling of 
which, though never so small, could not possibly 
have been accomplished in the short space of 
three generations, if there were no other men 
upon the earth than the posterity of the eight 
persons who were saved. The olive-leaf brought 
by the dove also proves that the flood did not 
reach the heights on which the olive-tree grows, 
because the latter, in this case, in the long 
space of one hundred and fifty days during 



154 THE COSMOGONY 

which the deluge prevailed, must necessarily 
have been destroyed. Thus, men might also 
have saved themselves upon heights which were 
not reached by the flood. 

Since, then, the Mosaic narrative appears to 
admit the possibility of other persons besides the 
Noachidce, having saved themselves from the great 
deluge, and since the traditions of all ancient na- 
tions testify that such was the case, and even 
record the names of the individuals saved, we are 
justified in assuming that the Noachidce were not 
the only persons upon the earth, who were preserved 
from the great deluge KP\ 

If, with the sacred scriptures, we recognize 
a common father of the human race, we must also 
admit a common point of departure from which the 
race proceeded. 

Upon what part of the earth this point was situ- 
ated, is a question which we must now examine. 
In this, as well as in all other respects, we must 
first consult our own sacred records, and it is only 
when these are silent, or express themselves 
indefinitely, that we are allowed to seek other 
sources for the solution of the question. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 155 

At the time when Moses wrote, according to 
the biblical computations, upwards of 4000 years 
had elapsed from the creation of the first man* 
Moses, therefore, could know no more of the 
locality in which the first man, was found, than 
we ourselves know, unless by means of revelation. 
Such a revelation is not mentioned in the Mosaic 
narrative, and if it had been afforded, it would 
probably have been geographically more compre- 
hensible, than what is recorded in the book of 
Genesis respecting the four rivers. 

We make this statement merely to show that 
the Mosaic account offers no obstacle to our en- 
deavouring to ascertain the locality in which man- 
kind first dwelt. 

By this locality I do not mean (as has been 

* J. Miiller adopts the following computation after the Alex- 
andrine text of the Mosaic books. See Versuch iiber die Zeit- 

rechnungen der Vorwelt : — 

Years. 

From the beginning to the flood (according to 

Julius Africanus) 2262 

To the first-born of Terah ...... 1072 

To the birth of Abraham (according to Usher) 60 

To Abraham's expatriation 75 

To the going down into Egypt 212 

To the departure from Egypt 430 

Total 4111 years. 



156 THE COSMOGONY 

already stated), the biblical Eden, but the locality 
where mankind, already united to a people, first 
resided, perhaps thousands of years after the 
creation of man, yet at a period far preceding 
the cataclysm called the deluge.* 

* The distinguished orientalist, Professor Eask, 'of Copen- 
hagen, in a pamphlet published in 1 828, on ' The most Ancient 
Hebrew Chronology until Moses J has made a comparison be- 
tween the age of the Adamites^ according to biblical years, and 
their age according to solar years. .'According to this calculation 
not more than 713 years elapsed between Adam and Noah^h 

J Rask thence draws the conclusion, which is confirmed by many 
biblical citations, " that Adam was not the first man upon the 
earth, consequently not the father of the whole human race" al- 
though he certainly might be the first man within the localities 
comprised in the Mosaic writings, and thus the father of the 
human race which proceeded from these localities, and called the 
Caucasian, from which the Europeans for the most part are de- 
scendecLx 

\ Without entering upon an examination of this view, it seems, 
however, probable that man's first existence upon the earth must 
be earlier than 713 years before Noah, which would not be 
more than 3200 years before Christ (according to another cal- 
culation of Rask, not more than 2700 years before Christ) which 
is much too short a period, compared with that testified by the 
traditions of all the other ancient nations, and especially when 
compared with the age of the great pyramid at Gizeh (see page 
42), as confirmed by astronomical calculations, which is 5000 
years earlier than the birth of Christ, and consequently 2000 
years older than the period maintained as that of the existence 
of the first man upon the earth. \ 

The very exact position of this pyramid (as of all the rest) to 



OF THE HINDOOS. 157 

In order to ascertain this locality we shall 
commence our inquiry with the remarkable 
record of the Zend people, called Zend-Avesta 
which has been already referred to. 

In the first chapter (Fargard) of the part, 
which bears the name Vendidad, Ormu%d (the 
good principle, in opposition to Ahriman, the evil 
principle), expresses himself to Zapetman (Zoro- 
aster) in the following terms : — 

s \ I have given to man an excellent and fertile 
country ; nobody is able to give such a one. # In 

the four cardinal points, which could not be better accomplished 
at the present day with the aid of the most perfect mathematical 
and astronomical instruments, proves, moreover, that the Egyp- 
tians, at this remote period, were already in a very advanced 
state of culture, which again presupposes a lapse of thousands of 
years for its attainment ; accordingly, we cannot conceal from 
ourselves that the existence of man upon the earth must be of a 
far higher date than that which is indicated by the Mosaic 
chronology. 

* I here follow the translation of the Zend-Avesta, by An- 
quetil du Perron, which appears to me to be the best. 

Heeren, in his excellent work, ' Ideen iiber die Politik und den 
Handel der alten Volker," made use of another translation 
(Kleuker's), which appears to me to be so far incorrect inas- 
much as it states that the country which Ormuzd had bestowed 
upon man, had changed its climate from a winter of five months 
into one of ten months, a physical impossibility not contained in 
the Zend-Avesta. 

Burnouf dit, dans ses Commentaires sur le Yacna, que la 



158 THE COSMOGONY 

this land the winter lasts, in certain regions, ten 
months, in other parts not more than five months 
of the year; in those the summer lasts seven 
months. The winter is severe ; the water freezes, 
but this is a blessing ; for after the cold every- 
thing grows magnificently. This land lies to the 
east (of Persia), lies where the stars rise every 
evening." 

" When Djemshid (the leader of the emigrating 
nation) came from the high land in the east, to 
the plain, there were neither domestic animals, 
nor wild, nor men." 

Those passages are remarkable on several 
accounts; they prove — 

1. That the country from which Djemschid 
came was an elevated mountain-land, where the 
winter, " in certain regions" (upon the high moun- 
tains), lasted ten months (as on the Alps), and 

traduction d'Anquetil n'est point juste, et que l'original Zend, 
du Zend-Aveste, dit que Djemshid est venu du nord, et non de 
Vest ; mais comment concilier cette version avec ce que dit le 
Zend-Aveste, que Djemshid est venu du pays oii Ton voit 
chaque soir (en Sogdiane) les etoiles se lever ; cela ne peut-etre 
que Test. 

Mais admettons meme que Djemshid soit arrive* en Sogdiana 
du nord, et non de Vest, ou cela nous conduit-il ? c'est encore vers 
la Chaine de Y Altai et le haut plateau de l'Asie centrale. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 159 

where, " in other parts 9 (the low lands) it did 
not last more than five months. 

2. That the country from which Djemschid 
came, was situated to the east of the land where 
the Zend-Avesta was composed (that is to say, in 
the east of Persia) ; * that the stars rose there 
every evening ; thus a proof that the land lay in 
the east, and could not be Mesopotamia, Armenia, 
or any of the countries probably indicated in the 
Mosaic records, all of which were to the west of 
Persia. 

3. That the country to which Djemschid came 
was desolate and uninhabited ; that neither men, 
tame nor wild beasts were found there. 

4. That the country from which Djemschid 
came was situated between 36 and 48 degrees 
of latitude, where the proportion stated between 
the length of the summer and winter takes 
place. 

All these statements point to the high land of 
Central Asia ,f with its mountain plateaus, where 

* Zoroaster, the author of the Zend-Avesta, was born, and 
wrote in the town of Orumia ( Ooroomis) not far from Tabur, 
in the most western part of Persia, on the borders of Armenia. 

t The best description of the high land of Central Asia, 



160 THE COSMOGONY 

the winter lasts ten months, and its low lands, 
where it lasts but five months, a country situated 
to the east of Persia, and not the west. 

is given by Alexander von Humboldt, in his excellent work 
entitled Asie Centrale. Vide p. 5, Paris edition of 1843. 
" Un plateau d'une hauteur considerable s'e*tend tres pro- 
bablement sans interruption, dans la direction du sud- 
sud-ouest au nord-nord-est, depuis la petite Boukharie jus- 
qu'aux Khalkas orientaux et a la chaine du Khangkai. 
En s'appuyant sur les positions astronomiques de Khotau 
et de Peking, ddterminees par le Pere Hallerstein et M. George 
Tuss, on trouve que le plateau mentione* est compris entre 
les mtSridiens de 79° et 1 16°, et que les bords les plus me'ridienaux 
et le plus septentrionaux se trouvent par les 36° et 48° de latitude, 
ce que, par les sinuosites du de*sert, qui n'est aucunement de'pourvu 
de paturages et de vegetation, donne au plateau du Cha-mo du 
Gobi de quarante-deux a quarante-trois mille lieues carries 
marines. En ajoutant a cette etendue du Gobi le haut plateau 
du Tubet qui en est separe* par la grande chaine des montagnes 
du Kouenloun au Koulkoun, on aura, d'apres mes calculs, depuis 
la pente septentrionale de 1' Himalaya jusqu'au Khangkai de la 
Mongolie Chinoise, c'est a dire, depuis le lac de Manasa et le 
Kaylas Tubetain, jusqu'a la limite nord-est du Gobi, une 
longueur transversale de 520 lieues au une surface renflee de 
soixante a soixante-deux mille lieues carrees.; c'est, a peu pres 
quatre fois la surface de la France, c'est une aire, a peine plus 
considerable que celle qu'occupa, sous l'aspect d'une longue 
bande, le massif souleve' de la Cordillere des Andes dans l'Ame- 
rique meridionale. Je compare ici deux genres de soulevements 
tres differents par leur forme et leur age relatif. En Asie l'axe 
du grand plateau est dirige* du sud-ouest au nord-est, et son 
existence est certainement anterieure aux grandes chaines de 
montagnes dont nous allons tracer le tableau dans cet ouvrage, 



OF THE HINDOOS. 161 

In the second chapter of the Zend-Avesta, 
Ormuzd expresses himself in the following man- 
ner : — 

^S 6 The second blessed place, which I, who am 
Ormuzd, presented to mankind, was Soghdi 
(Sogdiana) ; the third was Bakhdi (Bactria) ; the 
fourth was Nesa (a region in Khorassan, which 
still bears the same name) ; and the fifth was Ver 
(Fars, Farsistan)." 

et que elles-memes se prolongent dans le sens des paralleles a 
Vequateur. 

En restreignant le nom de plateau d'Asie a la zone que je viens 
de circonscrire d'apres l'ensemble de nos connaissances actuelles, 
il faut se hater d'aj outer que cette zone, bien loin de remplir 
rimmense espace de l'Asie interieure, offre cependant com- 
parativement, la plus grande continuite d'un exhaussement du 
sol en plateaux que Ton ait trouve* dans les divers continents. 
Quant a sa hauteur absolue au dessus du niveau de l'ocean, elle 
est encore aujourd'hui aussi incertaine que 1'etoit jadis son 
extension horizontale : nous ne connoissons cette hauteur que 
vers ses extremites au nord et au sud. 

Page 11. En franchissant la chaine du Kouenloun vers le sud, 
nous arrivons a ce vaste et celebre soulevement du sol que 
remplit l'espace entre le Kouenloun et l'Himalaya. 

Page 13. Si Ton examine avec attention l'ensemble des rap- 
ports que nous possedons, et si Ton compare ces rapports avec les 
descriptions minutieuses faitessur les lieux par desauteurs Chinois, 
on reconnait que le plateau Tubetain, loin d'etre contenu, se 
trouve souvent interrompu, surtout dans sa partie orientale par 
des groupes et chainons de montagne qui le parcourent en diffe- 
rentes situations. 

M 



162 THE COSMOGONY 

But does not this also prove, that mankind 
came from the east of Persia (namely, from the 
high land of Central Asia), and proceeded more 
and more to the westward ? 

Had man's first abode been in Mesopotamia, 
Armenia, or in the vicinity of the Euphrates,* the 
immigration into Persia would have been from 
the west, and in this case, a book written there, 
could not have stated that the first inhabitants 
came from the east. 

Having examined the records of the Zend 
nations, we must now pass on to those of the 
Chinese. 

According to what has been already mentioned, 
the historical records of China do not go further 
back than the reign of Schihoang, 250 years 
before Christ ; but their traditions extend as far as 
the reign of Fohi, 3000 years before Christ. 

According to these traditions, noted in the Schu- 
king, the ancestors of the Chinese, conducted by 
Fohi, came to the plains of China 2900 years be- 
fore Christ, from the high mountain-land which lies 

* Phrat has been considered to denote the Euphrates, but 
the word signifies river in general, and not the Euphrates in 
particular. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 163 

to the west of that country, — that is to say, from 
the high land of Central Asia. The very locality 
from which the immigration took place is stated 
in the Schuking, namely, the vicinity of the Baikal 
lake, which by the people of Central Asia, and 
their neighbours in Siberia, is still called the 
sacred lake* According to the records of the 
Schuking, the Chinese nation is then derived 
from the high land of Central Asia. 

Let us now pass on to the documents of the 
Hindoos, in order to ascertain the primitive abode 
of the fathers of this race. 

The most ancient writings of the Hindoos agree 
that the Brahmin and the Khetry castes, came 
from the north to India, from a high mountain land, 
which in seven steps raises itself from the plains 
of India up to the North Pole, where Skand, the 
god of war, reigns. The high land of Central 
Asia corresponds to this description. The seven 
steps consist of the double chain of the Himalaya, 

* It is a curious fact, that it was from the shores of the same 
lake that Dschingis Khan, 3000 years after Fohi, went to 
conquer China from the descendants of Fohi. He extended his 
conquests afterwards from China to India, and so far in the west 
as to Bohemia, founding the greatest empire which has ever been 
seen on earth. 

m2 



164 THE COSMOGONY 

the Kokonorian chain, the double Karakumenian 
chain, the Kouenloun, and the Altai chain, 
forming together what are figuratively called the 
seven steps. 

The Mahab-harata, and the Ramajana cele- 
brate the arrival of the Brahmin and Khetry 
castes from the high land situated to the north 
of India, and their conquest of this country, then 
probably inhabited only by settlers, who in former 
times came to clear the forests, and their descend- 
ants (so as the west of America is inhabited by 
descendants of settlers coming from the eastern 
provinces). 

Such probably has been the case in India. First 
came some few emigrants from the high neigh- 
bouring land ; others followed, until finally the 
great immigration took place, which, under the 
name of a conquest, is celebrated in the epic 
poems of the Hindoos. 

We have now seen the coincident statements of 
three of the most ancient nations of Asia : the Per- 
sians, the Chinese, and the Hindoos, that their 
ancestors came from the high land of Central Asia ; 
and as these statements have every appearance of 
probability, and we cannot expect more definite 



OF THE HINDOOS. 165 

information from times so remote, those statements 
may be considered as historically established* 

They all testify that the progenitors of the 
human race, during a certain period, the length 
of which cannot be calculated, dwelt on the high 
land of Central Asia, probably at that time united 
in one nation, whose language was the ancient 
Pelvi, from which the Sanscrit, the Zend, and the 
Kouwen are derivations, languages which now 
constitute the tongues of the three nations who 
emigrated from the central land, namely, the 
Hindoos, the Persians, and the Chinese.^ 



* \ Joh. von Miiller expresses himself in the following manner 
in his Allgemeine Geschiehte, Band I. p. 25. In order to 
ascertain the country in which the human race first dwelt, no 
method appears to me to be more certain than that of inquiring 
where bread, the universal staff" of life, and those domestic 
animals which are most generally useful, were indigenous ; for 
it is probable that man on his first immigration took with him 
his usual means of support, and those animals which had ac- 
companied him in his domestic life. Theophrastus observes, 
that corn grows wild in the mountain lands on the other side of 
the Caspian Sea. A pupil of Linne* (Heinzelmann) found corn 
growing wild in Baschkiria. Thus much is certain, that in the 
mountain land of Cashmeer, in Tibet, and in the north of China, 
it grows for several years without sowing or cultivation, and 
also that our domestic animals run about wild in the mountainous 
tracts of these countries. 

t In China there are properly four languages or develop- 



166 THE COSMOGONY 

How far this primitive people possessed that 
high degree of civilization which Bailly and 
some others attribute to it, is a question which, 
if not credible, nevertheless deserves examination. 
The reasons assigned for this high degree of 
civilization rest principally upon the opinion of 
Bailly.* 

1 . That the astronomy of the Hindoos, of the 
Chinese, and of the Chaldeans, appears to be 
rather " the remains, than the elements of a science" 
(plutot les debris que les elemens d'une science), 
and consequently presupposes a very ancient na- 
tion, from whom the science is derived, which 
forms the germ of these remains. 

2. That the Hindoos, the Persians, the Egyp- 
tians, and the Chinese, from the earliest periods 
of their history, divided the time alike, namely, 

ments of the original language Kou-wen. The most ancient 
records are written in this language, which at the present time 
is understood by none but the most learned Mandarins. It is 
allied to the Sanscrit. The second is called Wontschang, and 
forms the epic language ; the third is called Kuanhoa, and is 
the language of the Mandarins (being derived from the Kou- 
wen) ; the fourth is the common language of the people, called 
Kiang-tang, together with different dialects for each of the 
different provinces of the empire. 

* See his Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 167 

the year into 12 months, and 365^ days, and the 
day into 24 hours ; that they divided the Zodiac 
alike, into twelve signs; that they divided the 
week alike, into seven days, which, heing an 
arbitrary division, could not be the result of 
accident, but proves that they obtained it from 
the common source of an ancient 'people, who 
already possessed a high degree of astronomical 
science, and consequently a high degree of civil- 
ization. 

Let us now examine these reasons of Bailly. 
If we admit a common father of the whole family 
of mankind, we must admit a primitive nation. 
That this nation, during a certain period, dwelt 
on the high land of Central Asia, appears to be 
confirmed by the traditions of the Hindoos, the 
Chinese, and the Persians ; but that this people 
had attained a high degree of civilization, is con- 
tradicted by these very traditions. The Vedas 
represents the religion of the ancient people as a 
Sabeism, or worship of the sun and stars, which 
proves that this people was in a primitive state of 
development. The Chinese speak of Fohi, their 
first leader from the high land, as a shepherd, 
leading a nomadic life ; and the Persians speak 



168 THE COSMOGONY 

of Djemschid in the same way, which precludes 
a high degree of civilization.* 

On the other hand, tradition proves that Brah- 
maism developed itself on the shores of the 
Ganges, the Jumna, and the Nerbudda, the sacred 
rivers in whose waves alone, the Brahmin can 
wash away his sins and attain Nirvani. 

It is there we must seek not alone for the cradle 
of the Brahmin religion, but for the cradle of the 
high civilization of the Hindoos, which gradually 
extended itself in the west to Ethiopia, to 
Egypt, and to Phoenicia ; in the east to Siam, to 
China, and to Japan ; in the south to Ceylon, to 
Java, and to Sumatra ; and in the north to Persia, 
to Chaldea, and to Colchis, whence it came to 
Greece and to Rome, and at length to the remote 
abodes of the Hyperboreans. 

If, therefore, we admit with Bailly, that there 
was a primitive nation (which possibly during a 

* Lorsque dans le silence de l'histoire positive, guide* par 
l\£tude feconde des langues, on veut remonter hors de la Chine, 
aux germes d'une antique civilization Asiatique, on n'arrive point 
a ces Plateaux inhospitaliers du Nord, on arrive a l'origine 
commune des deux grandes branches de la famille des peuples 
Indo-persans, aux rapports des Ariens Brahmaniques, et des 
Ariens Bactrians. Vide Alex, von Humboldt, Asie Centrale, 
Vol. I. p. 24. 



OF THE HINDOOS. 169 

certain period inhabited Siberia*), we cannot 
admit that this nation possessed a high degree of 
civilization, a fact contradicted by the traditions 
of all ancient nations. 

* See Lettre sur VAtlantide de Platon a M. de Voltaire, 
full of the most singular trifling for so great an astronomer as 
Bailly. 

Bailly has made a comparison between the Hindoo names of 
the seven days of the week, and their names among the Egyp- 
tians and the JRomo- Grecian nations (Astronomie Indienne, 
page 6 of the Paris edition, 4to.). I will attempt a comparison 
between the Hindoo names of the days of the week and those of 
the Scandinavians. 

Sunday is called by the Hindoos Additavaram, from Additia, 
the sun. It is named from the sun by the Scandinavians ( Sbndag) . 

Monday is called Somavaram, from Soma, the moon. So 
among the Scandinavians (Monday). 

Tuesday is called by the Hindoos Mangelavaram, from their 
hero Mangala. It bears its name among the Scandinavians from 
their hero This ( Tisdag). 

Wednesday is termed Boutavaram by the Hindoos, after 
Boudha ; as by the Scandinavians it is denominated after Oden 
(Wodan, Bodhan, Budha), (Onsdag). 

Thursday is called Brahaspativaram by the Hindoos, after 
Brahma, their principal god; it bears its name among the 
Scandinavians after their principal god Thor ( Thorsdag). 

Friday is called by the Hindoos Sucravaram, after Sucra, 
the goddess of beauty ; it is named by the Scandinavians after 
Freja, the goddess of beauty (Frejdag). 

Saturday is called Sanyvaram by the Hindoos, after 
Sanyvar, the god who cleansed spiritually. It is named by the 
Scandinavians Lbrdag, derived from loger, bathing. 

We have here another proof that the myths of the Scandina= 
vians are derived from those of the Hindoos. 



170 



THE FIRST MIGRATION UPON EARTH. 



We have indicated in the last chapter, a period 
in which the human race was, in all probability, 
associated on the high land of Central Asia. We 
shall now inquire how far this abode has been 
the first where the human race was established, 
or whether there are grounds to conjecture that, 
previous to this period, some other part of the earth 
was inhabited by the parents of the human race. 

That the Eden of the Bible is not meant by 
this fart of the earth, has already been stated. 

In order to enter upon this inquiry, it will be 
necessary to go back into the history of the for- 
mation of the earth. 

The greatest authorities among the geologists 
all assume that there has been a period in the 
history of our planet, in which this planet, if not 
entirely, was at least on its surface, in a fluid 
state, which, according to certain geologists, has 



MIGRATION OF NATIONS. 171 

been brought about by the action of water; 
according to others, by that of fire ; and again, 
according to others, by both of these agents united. 

Fire is, however, the agent which appears to be 
most generally admitted, and seems to possess the 
strongest claims.* 

The once fluid state of the earth's surface, is 
attested not only by a multitude of geological 
facts, but also by the form of the globe itself, 
being flattened at the poles. 

* Cuvier expresses himself in the following terms on this 
subject (See his Discours sur les Revolutions de la surface du 
Globe. 5th Paris ed. p. 21). 

" Le granit, dont les cretes centrales de la plupart des grandes 
chaines de montagne sont composees, le granit qui depasse tout, 
est aussi la pierre qui s'enfonce sous toutes les autres, c'est la 
plus ancienne de celles qu'il nous ait ete' donne de voir dans la 
place que lui assigna la nature, soit qu'elle doive son origine a un 
liquid general qui, auparavant, aurait tout tenu en dissolution, soit 
qu'elle ait ete la premiere fixee par le refroidissement d'une 
grande en fusion, ou meme en evaporation. 

JBuckland expresses himself in the following manner in his 
excellent work, Geology and Mineralogy considered with 
reference to Natural Theology. Lond. 1836, Vol. I. p. 39. 

" We therefore commence our inquiry (of the primitive for- 
mation) at that most ancient period, when there is much evidence 
to render it probable that the entire materials of the globe were 
in a fluid state, and that the cause of this fluidity was heat." 

Such quotations might easily be multiplied, and, indeed, from 
the writings of our great naturalist, Berzelius, if the passages 
cited were not sufficient, 



172 MIGRATION OF NATIONS 

The agent which has produced this fluid state, 
or rather this process of fusion, must have been 
an internal fire, for the rays of the sun, in an 
atmosphere then filled with carbonic acid gas, 
and with the water of the sea transmuted into the 
form of gas, could not possess the intensity of 
heat required, to produce a fusion of the whole 
surface of the earth. 

That the surface of the earth, at the time when 
this process of fusion took place, could not be 
inhabited by organic beings is evident. 

Geology shows that organic beings were not 
created before everything on earth was ready to 
receive them, that is to say, not before the crust 
of the earth cooled to the temperature necessary 
for the existence of such beings. 

Even under the last period of the geological 
series, this temperature was so high, that the tem- 
perature of the polar regions, corresponded to the 
present temperature of the tropical regions, which is 
proved by the coal strata found in Nova Zembla, 
by the fossil remains found in the polar regions 
from the vegetable kingdom (Mavritia aculeata, 
Palmacites Lamanonis, Elaeis Guineensis, Cocos- 
nucifera), which belong all to the tropical vegeta- 



UPON THE EARTH. 173 

tion ; and by the fossil remains of the animal 
kingdom of that period, the Mammoth* the Rhi- 
noceros, the Hippopotamus, and the Tapir, f be- 
longing all to tropical climates.J 

But at a time when the temperature was so 
high in the polar regions, how much higher must it 
not have been at the tropics, where the rays of the 
sun fall perpendicularly, and where the boundary 
of the eternal winter over our heads, by its 

* Some geologists consider the woolly covering of the mammoth 
as a proof that this animal was destined to live in the northern 
regions. This opinion does not appear to be well founded, for the 
Lama, which is a native of Peru, near the equator, has an 
equally warm covering of wool as the mammoth, and the fore- 
part of the lion has one still warmer. 

| These animals were all herbivorous ; we may thence conclude 
how rich and tropical nature must have been in these polar 
regions to produce vegetables sufficiently succulent to support 
animals of so colossal a size as these. If, moreover, the tropical 
animals could live in the polar regions, still they could not pro- 
pagate themselves, had not the climate been similar to a tro- 
pical one. 

J Yide Remains in Tertiary Strata, Auckland, Vol II. p. 15. 
Cuvier expresses himself in the following terms respecting the 
animals of the tertial period, in his Discours sur les Revolutions 
du Globe, page 33. " Des carnassiers de la taille du lion, du 
tigre, de l'hyene, desolaient ce nouveau regne animal. En 
general son caractere, meme dans V extreme nord et sur les bords 
de la mer glaciale d'aujourd 'hui resemblait a celui que la seule 
zone torride nous qffre maintenant, et toutefois aucune espece 
n'y e*tait absolument la meme." 



174 MIGRATION OF NATIONS 

greater distance, contributes less to the cooling of 
the air than at the poles ; it must have been so 
high, that mans physical power could not endure it. 
[It is true that the fossil remains both of the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms,* which have been 
found from times that do not belong to the series 
of the geological periods, indicate a temperature 
little exceeding that which still prevails in the 
climates where these animals and plants are 
found, and that if the appearance of man upon the 
earth should not be older than these animals and 
plants, no reason can be given why this appearance 
should not have taken place as well in the 
southern as in the northern zones of the globe. 
But when we consider that nothing in nature is 
done suddenly, and that the cooling of the globe 
must have been successively, and, indeed, during 
an immense space of time, since, according to 
Fourier s observations, the cooling of the globe 
from a certain degree of temperature to a lower, 
requires a period of 1,280,000 years, the same 
proportion being obtained by a sphere of a foot 
in diameter in a second. Thus the cooling of 

* See Brongniart. 



UPON THE EARTH. 175 

the globe from the time when the temperature of 
the poles was tropical, until the time when 
(according to Brongniarf) it approached to the 
present, must probably have required a period of 
millions of years. 

That this cooling continued after the series of 
the geological periods, is demonstrated by EUe 
de Beaumont (in his examination of Pouillefs 
inquiry respecting the temperature of the universe, 
and its influence on the temperature of the earth), 
where he proves that the temperature of the 
surface of the earth, under the period of the 
diluvial stratum (when the mastodon lived) was 
several degrees higher than at present.* The 
appearance of man upon the earth may, therefore, 
have taken place at any point of time whatsoever, 
nearer to, or more remote from the geological 

* That man lived contemporary with the Mastodon is de- 
monstrated in Silliman's American Journal (page 169). So 
many human bones have been found, together with fossils of the 
broad-horned stag (Cervus Eurycerus Aldrovandi), especially in 
the turf-moors of Ireland (see Brewster's Edinb. Journal of 
Science, 1830, No. IV. p. 301), that we can scarcely doubt the 
co-existence of man with this now extinct animal. Another 
good authority, Dr. A. F. Link, considers man to have been 
coetaneous with several now extinct animals (see Link's Urwelt, 
2nd edition, Berlin, 1834, p. 81). 



176 MIGRATION OF NATIONS 

periods; yet still the position is certain, being 
based upon physical circumstances, that the polar 
regions must have been sooner prepared for the 
reception of man, than those which are situated 
nearer to the equator. 

Now, as the Almighty, in his supreme wisdom, 
does nothing without an end, it appears to be more 
in accordance with this wisdom, that the appear- 
ance of man upon the earth, should take place in 
those parts of the globe which were prepared for 
his reception, than in those which millions of 
years later came into a state adapted for that 
reception. 

This leads to the natural conclusion that the 
polar regions must have been inhabited earlier, than 
any of those regions which are situated nearer to 
the equator* 

* After having for several years weighed this idea, namely, 
that the polar regions must have been inhabited by man before 
those situated nearer the equator, I accidentally discovered that 
the forgotten and obsolete Buffon, has expressed this opinion 
more than seventy years ago (see Epoques de la Nature), an 
opinion which was taken up by Bailly, and introduced into 
several of his writings. 

The difference between the proofs employed by Buffon and 
Bailly in support of this position, compared with those here 
presented, arises from the discoveries which have since been 



UPON THE EARTH. 177 

As, according to the nature of the thing, both 
the polar regions must have been prepared equally 
early for the reception of mankind, it is possible 
that the appearance of man took place at the same 
time in both regions ; perhaps the white race in 
the countries about the north pole, and the 
black race in those about the south pole. A 
number of difficult problems might hence be 
solved ; but be this as it may, the position is cer- 
tain, that the polar regions (each of which pro- 
bably then formed a great continent) are those 
parts of the earth in which, according to physical 
grounds, man must first have appeared. 

In proportion as the earth became cooler, man- 
kind retired from the polar regions and ap- 
proached to those of the tropics, whose heat had 
then subsided to a temperature suited to the na- 
ture of man. It is in this way that men having 
left their primitive abodes (Siberia, Greenland, 
North America, Sec), gradually penetrated nearer 
to the equator. 

Siberia* which, according to this theory, was 

made in geology, and in other physical sciences accessible now, 
but not then. 

* Olaus Rudbeck has, from etymological grounds, always very 

N 



178 MIGRATION OF NATIONS 

the first in our Asiatic-European continent, * to 
receive mankind, was not then, as now, desolate 
and cold. No ! it was a country where the palm- 
tree raised its rich crown, where the hippopota- 
mus hathed in the rivers, and where the mammoth 
rejoiced in the luxurious vegetation of the tropics. 
It was the land of the golden age, the mythic 
eras, and the Hyperborean culture, spoken of by 
Plato and Solon, by the Vedas of India, and by 
the Egyptian priests of Sais ! 

But in proportion as the temperature of the 
earth decreased, this land lost its tropical climate ; 
then our ancestors left it for more southern coun- 
tries, and following in their migration the river- 
valleys (Obi, Jenisei, Irtish, Lena,f) i. e. came to 

uncertain, endeavoured to prove (in his Atlanticd) that the first 
abode of man was in Scandinavia, which he considered to be the 
same country as the Atlantis of Plato. This hypothesis, chime- 
rical in itself, has received a further refutation from Buck, Ber- 
zelius, and Lyell, who have proved that the Scandinavian 
peninsular hill rises from the sea, and probably was situated below 
the sea at the remote period in question. 

* Asia and Europe are connected together, and do not form 
more than one continent. 

\ It is along those rivers that the great number of fossil re- 
mains have been found of those animals which might be of 
service to the first, and probably nomadic, race of men in their 
migrations, such as the primitive-horse (which is still found in the 



UPON THE EARTH. 179 

the high land of Central Asia, where these rivers 
take their rise ; it is there we have found 
them in a period of thousands of years subse- 
quently. 

That the human race in the beginning must 
have had another abode than the high lands of 
Central Asia, is rendered still more probable 
from the consideration that man, in his pri- 
mitive, naked, and helpless state, not to become 
a prey to the severity of the seasons, required an 
even and mild temperature, such, for instance, as is 
found on the high mountain-plateaus of South 
America (Quito, Pastos, Titicaca, &c), where the 
thermometer, during the whole year, stands at 
from 60° to 70° Fahrenheit, and where a continual 
summer yields a constant supply of the necessaries 
of life. 

But such a climate is not to be found in the 
high land of Central Asia, " where the winter, in 
the lowest situations, lasts five, and in the highest, 
ten months." 

The polar regions must, during the time when 
the earth's internal fire affected its then thinner 

deserts of Cobi), the buffalo -ox, and the mammoth, which pos- 
sibly at that period supplied the place of the camel. 



180 MIGEATION OF NATIONS 

surface, more than now have had an even and 
temperate climate, independent of the changes 
of the seasons, and more suited to the helpless 
and naked condition of the first men, than that 
which prevailed then on the high land of Cen- 
tral Asia. 

The great river-valleys of Siberia must, accord- 
ing to this hypothesis, as we have seen, lead our 
ancestors up to the high land of Central Asia 
where these rivers have their source, it is alike 
natural that other river-valleys would conduct 
them down to the adjacent countries. Thus the 
Oxus and Jaccartes (Gihon and Sihon) would lead 
them to Sogdiana and Bactria (as the Zend-Avesta 
has shown) the Hoangho and Hoi-ho * to the plains 
of China (as the SchuMng has shown?) and the 
Indus, Ganges, and Jumna, lead them to India.t 

* The Hoangho and Hoi-ho are two connected arms of the 
same river, namely, of that which afterwards received the com- 
mon name of Hoangho, or the Yellovj-river. 

t According to the most recent voyages of discovery, the 
Oxus takes its rise in the lake Sir-i-Kol, on the Pamenian 
tableland, 17,667 feet above the level of the sea, according to 
Alex, von Humboldt, but 19,000 feet according to John Wood, 
in his Narrative of a Journey to the Sources of the River Oxus, 
page 354. The Jaxartes has its source in the great chain of 
mountains, Tian-ohan, which forms the southern boundary of 



UPON THE EARTH. 181 

Thus the river-valleys and water-systems of 
Asia determined the course of human migrations, 
and conducted mankind to those parts of the 
world where, according to the wisdom of the 
Almighty, they best might spread their species. 

According to the theory here presented, our 
ancestors' original home, was in the polar regions, 
where natural science bears testimony thereof. 
From thence they migrated to the high land of 
Central Asia, where tradition tells us of their long 
abode ; and from this high land they wandered 
down to India, China, and Persia, where poesy 
celebrates their arrival, and where history con- 
firms their final settlement. 

But when has all this taken place ? demands the 
philosopher ; it was at the beginning of the present 
geological period, and long before the cataclysm 

the northern plateau of Central Asia ; the Hoangho takes its 
rise in the Lake of Stars, called Djuring-noor, on the high 
land of Thibet ; but the Indus, the Sutledi, and the Brahma- 
pootra have their source in the same high land of Thibet, in 
the sacred lakes Ramana-hruda and Manassa, (14,000 feet 
above the level of the sea, according to Humboldt, and 17,000, 
according to Moorcroft and Tucbeck). The Ganges and 
Jumna take their rise in the Trovin Kamaus of the Himalaya 
mountains, 24,000 feet above the level of the sea, according to 
Humboldt. 



182 MIGRATION OF NATIONS 

we call the deluge; this geology, tradition, and 
history tells us, but nothing more. 

The natural sciences have in modern times un- 
veiled organic life, as it existed at periods pre- 
ceding the creation of man, by millions of years ; 
they have made it possible to trace, from physical 
grounds, the first abode and the first migrations 
of man ; and they have in their collected results 
given the astonishing conclusion, that nothing upon 
earth is perishable, that matter only changes its 
form, — is immortal, like the spirit I 



UPON THE EARTH. 



183 



A Tabular Extract from the work of Champollion on Egypt. 
A View of the Dynasties according to Manetho. 











Commence- 


Succession 




Number 


Period 


ment before 


of 




of 


of their 


the birth 


Dynasties. 


Origin. 


Kings. 


Reign. 


of Christ. 


1st 


Tinite Thebaine 


8 


252 


5867 


2nd 


Tinite Thebaine 


9 


297 


5615* 


3rd 


Memphite . 


8 


197 


5318 


4th 


Memphite . 


17 


448 


5121 


5th 


Elephantine 


• 9f 


248* 


4673 


6th 


Memphite . 


6t 


203 


4425 


7th 


Memphite . 


5 


75 


4222 


8th 


Memphite . 


5 


100 


4147 


9th 


Heracleopolite . 


4 


100 


4047 


10th 


HeracMopolite . 


19 


185 


3947 


11th 


Thebaine . 


17 


59 


3762 


12th 


Thebaine . 


7 


245 


3703 


13th 


Thebaine . . 


60 


453 


3417 


14th 


Xoite . . . 


. 76 


484 


3004 


15th 


Thebaine . . 


76 


250 


2520 


16th 


Thebaine ^ 


5 


190 


2270 


17th 


f Thebains Pharaons 
\ Pasteurs 


. !} 


260 


2082 


18th 


Thebaine . 


17 


348 


1822 


19th 


Thebaine . 


6 


194 


1473 


20th 


Thebaine . 


12 


178 


1279 


21st 


Tanite . . . 


7 


130 


1101 


22nd 


Bubastite . 


9f 


120f 


971 


23rd 


Tanite . 


4t 


89f 


851 


24th 


Sai'te 


1 


44 


762 


25th 


Ethiopienne 


3 


44 


718 


26th 


Saite 


9 


150| 


674$ 


27th 


Persane 


8 


120 


524§ 


28th 


Saite 


1 


6 


404 


29th 


Mendtfsienne . 


5 


21 


398 


30th 


Sebennetique . 


3 


38 


377 


31st 


Persane 


3 


8 


339 


End of their government . 






. 331 



* The first king of this dynasty was called Souphi. After a reign of 63 
years, he was immediately succeeded by Sensasouphi, who reigned 66 years, 
and after him came Manchkrts, whose reign also lasted 63 years. 

f According to Julius Africanus. 

% According to Julius Africanus, Eusebius, and the tables of kings com- 
pared with each other. 

§ The conquest of Egypt by Cambyses is placed at 525 years before 
Christ. 



LONDON: 

Priuted by William Clowes and Sons, 

Stamford Street. 



T*3PJ? 




